SoftBank has cashed out of Nvidia, liquidating its stock holdings for $5.83 billion that it will reportedly use to fund what CNBC describes as “its ‘all in’ bet on ChatGPT maker OpenAI.” The sell-off was disclosed in SoftBank’s most recent earnings statement, which indicated 32.1 million Nvidia shares were sold in October. The Japanese conglomerate also said it sold part of its T-Mobile holdings for $9.17 billion. “Through those options and tools we make sure that we are ready for funding in a very safe manner,” SoftBank CFO Yoshimitsu Goto said at an investor presentation. SoftBank announced a four-to-one stock split yesterday, while Nvidia shares were down 1.7 percent on the sell-off news.

“The sale of Nvidia shares, partial sale of T-Mobile shares and the margin loan on SoftBank’s holding in Arm are all ‘sources of cash that will be used to fund the $22.5 billion investment in OpenAI,’” a source told CNBC, adding that the cash will also fund “other projects the firm is working on.”

“Beyond OpenAI, SoftBank has raced to find other areas that could benefit from AI, spending billions on robotics startups and companies in the chip sector,” writes The Wall Street Journal, noting that “in October, it agreed to buy Swiss industrial giant ABB’s robotics business for $5.4 billion, aiming to combine the potential of AI with robots.”

The Nvidia sell-off “had nothing to do with concerns about artificial intelligence valuations,” CNBC explains, noting “it’s not the first time SoftBank has cashed out of the American AI chip darling,” having unloaded a major cache in 2019. “Despite its latest sale, SoftBank’s business interests remain heavily intertwined with Nvidia’s,” CNBC points out.

The Nvidia sale represents “a small holding of 0.13 percent of the chip company,” per WSJ, which says the market has responded positively to SoftBank’s investment signals: shares have more than tripled since April,” valuing chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son’s stake at over $70 billion “despite a tech pullback” of late.

“The Nvidia exit coincides with a growing debate about whether spending by big tech firms like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. — expected to surpass $1 trillion in coming years — will produce commensurate returns,” says Bloomberg.

“The stake sales and a blowout gain of $19 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund helped the company double its profit in its fiscal second quarter,” per CNBC, noting that “the Vision Fund has been aggressively pushing into artificial intelligence, investing and acquiring firms throughout the AI value chain.”