Masayoshi Son isn\u2019t known for half measures. The SoftBank founder\u2019s career has been studded with eyebrow-raising bets, each one seemingly more outrageous than the last. <\/p>\n
His latest move is to cash out his entire $5.8 billion Nvidia stake to go all-in on AI. And while it surprised the business world on Tuesday, it maybe should not. At this point, it\u2019s almost more surprising when the 68-year-old Son doesn\u2019t push his chips to the center of the table.<\/p>\n
Consider that during the late 1990s dot-com bubble, Son\u2019s net worth soared to about $78 billion by February 2000, briefly making him the richest person in the world. Then came the ugly dot-com implosion months later. He lost $70 billion personally \u2013 which, at the time, was the largest financial loss by any individual in history \u2014 as SoftBank\u2019s market cap plummeted 98% from $180 billion to just $2.5 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Amid that terribleness, Son made what would become his most legendary bet: a $20 million investment in Alibaba in 2000, one decided (the story goes) after just a six-minute meeting with Jack Ma. That stake would eventually grow to be worth $150 billion<\/a> by 2020, transforming him into one of the venture industry\u2019s most celebrated figures and funding his comeback.<\/p>\n That Alibaba success has often made it harder to see when Son has stayed too long at the table. When Son needed capital to launch his first Vision Fund in 2017, he didn\u2019t hesitate to seek $45 billion from Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund \u2013 long before taking Saudi money became acceptable in Silicon Valley. <\/p>\n After journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018, Son condemned the killing as \u201chorrific and deeply regrettable\u201d but insisted SoftBank couldn\u2019t \u201cturn our backs on the Saudi people,\u201d maintaining the firm\u2019s commitment to managing the kingdom\u2019s capital. In fact, the Vision Fund actually ramped up dealmaking soon after.<\/p>\n That didn\u2019t turn out so well. <\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco A big bet on Uber generated paper losses for years<\/a>. Then came WeWork. Son overrode his lieutenants\u2019 objections, fell \u201cin love\u201d with founder Adam Neumann, and assigned the co-working company a dizzying valuation of $47 billion in early 2019 after making several previous investments in the company. But WeWork\u2019s IPO plans collapsed after it published a famously troubling<\/a> S-1 filing. The company never quite recovered \u2013 even after pushing out Neumann and instituting a series of belt-tightening measures \u2013 ultimately costing SoftBank $11.5 billion in equity losses and another $2.2 billion in debt. (Son reportedly later called it \u201ca stain on my life.\u201d)<\/p>\n Son has been mounting another comeback for years, and Tuesday will undoubtedly be remembered as an important moment in his turnaround tale. Indeed, it will likely be recalled as the day SoftBank sold all 32.1 million of its Nvidia shares \u2013 not to diversify its bets but instead to double down elsewhere, including on a planned $30 billion commitment to OpenAI and to participate (it reportedly hopes) in a $1 trillion AI manufacturing hub in Arizona.\u00a0<\/p>\n If selling that position still gives Son some heartburn, that\u2019s understandable. At about $181.58 per share, SoftBank exited just 14% below Nvidia\u2019s all-time high of $212.19, which is a strong look. That\u2019s remarkably close to peak valuation for such a huge position. Still, the move marks SoftBank\u2019s second complete exit from NVIDIA, and the first one was exceedingly costly. (In 2019, SoftBank sold a $4 billion stake in the company for $3.6 billion, shares that would now be worth more than $150 billion.)<\/p>\n The move also rattled the market. As of this writing, Nvidia shares are down nearly 3% following the disclosure, even as analysts emphasize that the sale \u201cshould not be seen as a cautious or negative stance on Nvidia,\u201d but rather reflects SoftBank needing capital for its AI ambitions.<\/p>\n Wall Street can\u2019t help but wonder: does Son see something right now that others do not? Judging by his track record, maybe \u2014 and that ambiguity is all investors have to go on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masayoshi Son isn\u2019t known for half measures. 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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n