Nomura’s New $19.23B SATS Position Dominated Its Q4 2025 13F

Nomura Holdings does not file like a classic long-only asset manager, and its Q4 2025 13F is a textbook example of why that distinction matters. Reported 13F AUM reached $75.14B, while the disclosed holdings value in the quarter-over-quarter comparison rose from $63.33B to $74.08B, a solid +17.0%. But the real headline is not the growth rate. It is the arrival of a new $19.23B SATS 3.875 11/30/30 position that alone represented 25.96% of the filing.

That single line item changes how the whole filing should be read. For Nomura, a giant Japanese investment bank with major global markets operations and an explicit strategic focus on the U.S. franchise, the 13F is often part conviction portfolio, part market-structure snapshot. If you read it like a hedge fund letter, you will probably misclassify what the firm is actually doing.

TL;DR

• Nomura reported $75.14B in Q4 2025 13F AUM, with disclosed holdings value up from $63.33B to $74.08B, a 17.0% quarter-over-quarter increase.
• A new SATS 3.875 11/30/30 position arrived at $19.23B and 25.96% of the filing, immediately dominating the portfolio.
• Below that outsized position, the visible U.S. equity book still leaned into major growth and index exposures such as META, NVDA, TSLA, SPY, GOOGL, IWM, and MSFT.
• The cleanest directional tells were NVDA up 34% shares and SPY up 691% shares, even as META fell 25% and TSLA fell 50%.

Why this does not look like a normal fund filing

Nomura’s latest investor materials repeatedly emphasize the U.S. market as a core engine of global growth and highlight strong momentum in Equities and securitized products. That context helps explain why a 13F from Nomura can look stranger than one from a traditional stock picker. A bank-dealer filing can contain inventory, financing-related exposures, structured positions, and broad market hedges alongside classic long equity ideas. Q4 2025 fits that pattern perfectly.

The top line item tells the story. SATS 3.875 11/30/30 came in as a brand-new $19.23B position, vastly larger than the next disclosed holdings: META at $4.51B and NVDA at $4.45B. When one new position is that much larger than everything else, the default assumption should not be “Nomura made an all-in stock call.” The more credible read is that some part of the wholesale platform was warehousing, financing, or otherwise intermediating an exposure large enough to overwhelm the rest of the book.

What did Nomura own in Q4 2025 besides the giant SATS line?

Strip out the giant top position and the rest of the filing suddenly looks much more recognizable. META remained a $4.51B exposure despite a 25% share reduction. NVDA climbed to $4.45B after a 34% share increase. TSLA still ranked near the top at $3.23B even after a 50% share cut. Then came SPY at $2.77B, GOOGL at $2.71B, IWM at $1.59B, and MSFT at $1.43B.

That mix says the underlying U.S. book was not narrowly idiosyncratic. It blended mega-cap technology, broad equity beta, and index-like liquidity. In other words, the weirdness of the filing sits overwhelmingly in the top position rather than in the whole portfolio construction.

Exposure	Q4 2025 value	Portfolio weight	Interpretation
SATS 3.875 11/30/30	$19.23B	25.96%	The filing’s dominant line item and the main reason this looks like a bank balance-sheet snapshot.
META	$4.51B	6.09%	Still a major exposure even after a 25% share reduction.
NVDA	$4.45B	6.00%	The clearest large-cap technology position that Nomura actively leaned into.
TSLA	$3.23B	4.36%	Remained meaningful despite a deep share cut.
SPY	$2.77B	3.74%	The 691% share jump points to a major increase in broad U.S. equity exposure.
GOOGL	$2.71B	3.66%	Alphabet stayed roughly flat and functioned as stable platform exposure.

The history says Nomura was growing before the giant new position arrived

One reason the Q4 filing deserves nuance is that the broader 13F trend was already constructive. Nomura’s reported 13F AUM moved from $40.05B in 2024Q1 to $52.17B in 2024Q2, fell back to $43.58B in 2024Q3, surged to $74.09B in 2024Q4, then reset through $53.57B in 2025Q1, $60.46B in 2025Q2, and $64.57B in 2025Q3 before reaching $75.14B in Q4 2025. So this was not a dead-stable book suddenly hijacked by one trade. Nomura’s disclosed U.S. footprint had already been expanding.

That matters because it tells us the giant SATS line arrived on top of an already large and rising U.S. franchise. The filing is unusual, but it is not random. It reflects a real global markets platform that has been scaling and reallocating exposure across cycles.

What is the most useful investor takeaway?

Signal	Q4 2025 read	Why it matters
Reported 13F AUM	$75.14B	Nomura belongs on any serious watchlist of globally active 13F filers.
QoQ disclosed value change	$63.33B to $74.08B	The filing was growing even before you debate what the top position means.
Dominant new position	SATS 3.875 11/30/30 at 25.96%	One line item can distort the whole quarter if you mistake dealer activity for pure conviction investing.
Clear growth bet	NVDA up 34% shares	Nvidia looks like a genuine active lean within the more traditional equity sleeve.
Broad market overlay	SPY up 691% shares	Nomura also increased liquid index exposure in size, reinforcing the market-structure interpretation.

My takeaway is that this filing should be read in two layers. Layer one is the bank balance-sheet layer, where the new $19.23B SATS position dominates and warns against simplistic “Nomura loves X” conclusions. Layer two is the more conventional equity layer, where NVDA, SPY, GOOGL, MSFT, AMZN, and PLTR show a U.S. book that was still heavily tied to large-cap growth, index liquidity, and fast-moving institutional flows.

That is why Nomura is such a useful filer to track. It does not give you a clean mutual-fund-style statement of belief. It gives you a more complex read on where a global securities firm is carrying risk, facilitating risk, and choosing to keep liquid equity exposure on the books. For more manager deep dives, visit the research hub or compare the full filing on the Nomura detail page.

Frequently asked questions

What did Nomura buy in Q4 2025?

The most important new line item was SATS 3.875 11/30/30 at $19.23B, while major disclosed equity exposures included META, NVDA, TSLA, SPY, GOOGL, IWM, and MSFT.

Why was Nomura’s Q4 2025 filing so concentrated?

Because one new position, SATS 3.875 11/30/30, represented 25.96% of the filing. That kind of concentration is more consistent with a bank or dealer balance-sheet snapshot than a traditional diversified fund portfolio.

Was Nvidia a bullish signal in Nomura’s Q4 2025 13F?

Yes. NVDA rose to $4.45B after a 34% share increase, making it one of the clearest classic equity conviction signals in the filing.

Why is SPY important in this Nomura filing?

SPY jumped 691% in shares to $2.77B, which suggests Nomura materially increased liquid broad-market exposure, not just idiosyncratic single-name risk.