Tokyo-listed shares of SoftBank Group fell sharply on Friday, extending a three-day losing streak as investors digested the Japanese conglomerate’s disclosure that it had sold its entire stake in US chipmaker Nvidia for $5.83 billion.
The stock fell nearly 9% in early trade, before trimming losses to 5% lower later in the day.
If the decline holds, it would mark the second consecutive week of heavy selling and follow last week’s nearly $50 billion wipeout in market capitalisation — SoftBank’s worst weekly loss since March 2020.
SoftBank revealed in its latest earnings release that it offloaded 32.1 million Nvidia shares in October and pared back its T-Mobile stake, generating $9.17 billion from the divestment.
The move surprised markets but isn’t unprecedented. The group’s Vision Fund had previously invested about $4 billion in Nvidia in 2017 before fully exiting in 2019.
Despite the selloff, SoftBank remains tied to Nvidia through a range of artificial intelligence ventures, including the $500 billion Stargate project for data centres in the United States, which relies on Nvidia’s chip technology.
Regional tech stocks also under pressure
The broader Asian technology sector followed SoftBank lower on Friday.
Shares of semiconductor and chip production equipment makers declined sharply amid renewed global concerns over high valuations and weakening demand for tech hardware.
Advantest Corp., a leading semiconductor testing equipment maker, dropped more than 3%, while Tokyo Electron fell about 4%.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chip producer, slid 2.04%.
In South Korea, SK Hynix tumbled over 5%, and Samsung Electronics declined 3.8%.
Meanwhile, Chinese tech giants were also under pressure.
Tencent Holdings shares fell 5.61%, while JD.com dropped 4.31%, extending recent declines across major Hong Kong-listed internet names.
Weakness in Asia followed a sharp overnight selloff in the United States, where technology stocks led losses.
Nvidia and Broadcom dropped 3.6% and 4.3%, respectively, while Alphabet, the parent company of Google, fell 2.8%.
Investors appear increasingly cautious about elevated valuations in the artificial intelligence sector, which has fueled much of the global market’s rally over the past year.
SoftBank, Blackstone in talks to invest in Indian AI startup
Even as SoftBank faces investor pressure at home, the company continues to pursue AI and cloud infrastructure investments abroad.
As per media reports, SoftBank Group and Blackstone Inc. are in early talks to invest in Neysa Networks Pvt., an Indian cloud infrastructure startup that provides computing resources for artificial intelligence applications.
The sources said Blackstone is considering taking a majority stake, while SoftBank may opt for a minority holding, though discussions are ongoing and no final decision has been reached.
Other investors may also join the deal.
Founded in 2023 by Sharad Sanghi and Anindya Das, Neysa Networks provides AI cloud-computing infrastructure on demand.
The startup has raised about $50 million from backers including Z47 (formerly Matrix Partners India) and Nexus Venture Partners, according to information on its website.
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