SoftBank is a Japanese multinational investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, focusing on investment management. The Group’s flagship Vision Fund has sold billions of US assets recently. This was a sign of its founder, Masayoshi Son’s shift away from VC’s past deals and towards his interest in Artificial intelligence and Semiconductors. Son is selling off assets from the fund’s portfolio as he prepares for various possible ways to overtake the market of AI and chips. According to a report by BT, SoftBank’s equity capital market team had played a significant role in raising Vision Fund’s stakes with minimal market disruption. Here we are talking about Masayoshi’s Son Shifts Towards AI Chips, Leading Softbank To Sell Off Vision Fund Assets.
The reason behind this change in interest is the huge success of ARM (Advanced RISC Machine). Arm is a leading technology provider of processor IP and chips, offering a wide range of processors to maintain best-in-class performance, power, and cost requirements. The chip designer’s market value has soared to $106 billion since last year, making softbank’s 90% holding more than all softbank. ARM is owned 90% by SoftBank Group, and it raised its revenue from almost $2.96 billion to approximately $3.2 billion.
Softbank’s founder, Masayoshi Son, was previously said to be looking to bankroll $100 billion chip ventures to compete with Nvidia Corp. and provide semiconductors to power the development of Artificial Intelligence services. SoftBank now owns less than 5% of Paytm and SenseTime, as the vision fund has been selling down stakes in Indian startup Paytm and China’s SenseTime Group Inc. Son is selling off these assets to prepare for possible investments in AI and semiconductors. Since the end of 2021, SoftBank’s Vision Fund has sold about $29 billion of its shares in companies like Coupang and DoorDash.
SoftBank has been trying to sell these investments smoothly without causing too much disruption in the market. Last week, SoftBank was in the news for leading a big funding round of $1.05 billion for a UK company that makes self-driving technology called Wayve Technologies. Also, in 2022, a company connected to SoftBank joined forces with Symbotic Inc., which makes warehouse robots. They’ve been working together since then. They have also slowed down new investments and focused on AI and chip ventures.
Conclusion
Masayoshi Son, The founder of SoftBank, pivots towards AI and chips, leading SoftBank’s Vision Fund to sell billions in assets, signaling a move away from past VC deals. With ARM’s success, valued at $106 billion, SoftBank aims to dominate AI and chip markets. Son’s plans include investing $100 billion in AI and chip ventures to compete with Nvidia. SoftBank is putting more money into AI and chips, as shown by its recent investments in companies like Wayve Technologies. This shows they’re changing how they invest. They’re also selling some of their investments in other companies, like Paytm and SenseTime, to put more focus on AI and chips.
Disclaimer -We have collected this information from our direct sources, various trustworthy sources on the internet and the facts have been checked manually and verified by our in-house team.