Masayoshi Son's "obsession": Missing out on NVIDIA, should he create one himself?

As the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son is known for his bold investment vision.

However, amid the booming AI revolution, this Japanese entrepreneur seems to be brewing a new gamble. He is planning a strategic investment aimed at creating the next NVIDIA.

On December 16th, Eastern Time, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced that SoftBank will invest $100 billion in the U.S.. Masayoshi Son also stated that his confidence in the U.S. market has increased since Trump's election as President.

In addition, Bloomberg reported that he is working to push ARM into a deeper transformation into the AI chip field, attempting to share in the AI wave.

This strategy may lead to extensive investments by SoftBank in chip production, energy capacity, and related technologies. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Masayoshi Son's goal is to launch the first batch of shippable AI chips by 2026, with models available as early as next summer.

Missing NVIDIA: An "Unfinished Fate"

As early as 2016, SoftBank spent $32 billion to acquire the British chip design company ARM, hoping to establish a foothold in the chip and AI fields.

However, Masayoshi Son also had his eyes on another rising star—NVIDIA. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Masayoshi Son greatly admired Jensen Huang's strategic vision and technical capabilities. In 2017, SoftBank held about 4.9% of NVIDIA's shares through its Vision Fund, briefly becoming its fourth-largest shareholder.

However, due to the cryptocurrency market crash in 2018, which led to a sharp decline in NVIDIA's stock price, SoftBank ultimately chose to sell its shares, making a profit of about $3 billion.

What is even more lamentable is that NVIDIA's stock price soared afterward due to the explosive demand for AI chips, and its market value has now surpassed $1 trillion.

Masayoshi Son expressed regret over this, mentioning in public several times his "admiration and regret" for NVIDIA's development trajectory. In November, Masayoshi Son was seen "crying in despair" with Jensen Huang at the NVIDIA AI Summit, stating, "I really regret selling NVIDIA stock."

Masayoshi Son's "AI Obsession"

Looking back at SoftBank's history, since 2016, Masayoshi Son's Vision Fund has invested over $100 billion in hundreds of startups worldwide. However, this has also led to some investment failures, such as WeWork and Katerra.

In SoftBank's investment portfolio, ARM has become the most valuable part. In 2023, SoftBank successfully pushed ARM to go public on NASDAQ, raising over $5 billion.

Masayoshi Son has not stopped there. Bloomberg reported that he is working to push ARM into a deeper transformation into the AI chip field, attempting to share in the AI wave.

This strategy may lead to extensive investments by SoftBank in chip production, energy capacity, and related technologies. According to sources cited by Bloomberg, Masayoshi Son realized that "a series of disastrous investments" had harmed his assets and is determined to develop SoftBank's own chips. His goal is to launch the first batch of shippable AI chips by 2026, with models available as early as next summer. **

For many years, Masayoshi Son has claimed that AI will change the world and sees it as the core driving force of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. However, his AI gamble is not without risks. Analysis points out that firstly, the AI chip market is highly competitive, with giants like NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel already occupying high ground.

More importantly, SoftBank's financial situation has not been stable in recent years. The Vision Fund has been severely impacted by multiple investment failures, with cumulative losses reaching hundreds of billions of dollars. Even so, Masayoshi Son still chooses to bet on the AI field, and whether this "all-in" strategy will be effective remains to be seen