You know that feeling when you sell something and immediately regret it? Like when you flip your old Pokemon cards on eBay, only to watch them skyrocket in value the next week? Well, imagine that feeling, but instead of Pokemon cards, it’s a $6 billion stake in the hottest AI company on the planet.
Meet Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s CEO and apparently the most emotionally invested billionaire in tech. This guy just admitted he was literally crying while selling off his company’s entire Nvidia position. Not metaphorically crying. Actually crying.
“I was crying to sell Nvidia shares,” Son confessed at a Tokyo event this week, probably while dabbing his eyes with hundred-dollar bills. “I don’t want to sell a single share.”
So why did he do it? Simple: he needed the cash to go all-in on OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. It’s like selling your reliable Honda to buy a rocket ship – risky, but potentially game-changing.
Here’s the wild part: SoftBank has been playing this Nvidia game for years. They first bought in back in 2017 for $4 billion, way before AI became the hottest thing since sliced bread. Then they sold in 2019 for $3.3 billion (probably kicking themselves later), bought back in during 2020, and now they’ve sold again.
It’s like that friend who keeps buying and selling the same stock, except this friend manages hundreds of billions of dollars and his decisions move entire markets.
The timing is particularly brutal. Nvidia has been on an absolute tear, becoming one of the most valuable companies in the world as everyone scrambles to build AI systems. Selling now is like leaving a party just as it’s getting good.
But Son isn’t just throwing darts at a board here. He’s betting big on what he calls “super intelligence” – basically AI that’s smarter than humans. He thinks when this arrives (and he’s convinced it will), it’ll drive at least 10% of global economic growth. His price tag for making this happen? A casual $10 trillion in total investment.
That’s not a typo. Ten. Trillion. Dollars.
SoftBank has already committed $40 billion to OpenAI, with $22.5 billion due by the end of this year. That’s the kind of money that requires selling your Nvidia shares, even if it makes you cry.
The market wasn’t thrilled about the news. When SoftBank announced the sale in November, Nvidia’s stock took a hit. Investors saw it as a bearish signal – if one of tech’s biggest players is selling, maybe the party really is over.
But here’s the thing about Son: he’s not your typical suit-wearing, emotionless corporate executive. This is a guy who wears his heart (and his investment strategy) on his sleeve. He genuinely respects Nvidia and CEO Jensen Huang, calling them both incredible.
“If I had more money, of course, I wanted to keep Nvidia shares, all the time, any time,” he said, probably while staring wistfully at his portfolio.
So what’s the takeaway here? Sometimes even billionaires have to make tough choices. Sometimes you have to sell the thing you love to buy the thing you believe in. And sometimes, it’s okay to cry about it – even if you’re doing it from your private jet.