SoftBank Sold $6B in NVIDIA to Fund OpenAI and Bet $3.2B on Intel: Inside Masa Son’s $15.5B Q4 2025 AI Infrastructure Pivot

Masayoshi Son just executed the most radical portfolio rotation of the Q4 2025 filing season. SoftBank Group Corp.’s 13F, filed February 17, 2026, reveals that Son completely exited a $5.99 billion NVIDIA position that comprised 51% of his portfolio — and redeployed over $10 billion into Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor, a Bitcoin treasury company, and crypto infrastructure. The NVIDIA sale was not a bearish call: SoftBank’s CFO Yoshimitsu Goto explicitly stated the proceeds were needed to fund the firm’s $40 billion commitment to OpenAI. This is the second time SoftBank has completely exited NVIDIA — the first was in 2019, when those shares would now be worth over $150 billion.

TL;DR

• AUM: $15.47B — up $3.81B (+32.7%) QoQ, despite liquidating the portfolio’s #1 holding.
• NVIDIA complete exit: $5.99B position (51.4% of portfolio) sold in October 2025 for $5.83B. CFO: “Nothing to do with Nvidia itself — we need to fund OpenAI.”
• T-Mobile legacy: $5.79B remaining from the Sprint merger — not a new investment. SoftBank sold $9.17B of TMUS shares mid-2025 to raise cash.
• Intel strategic entry: $3.21B — includes a direct $2B investment at $23/share. Masa Son cited his decades-long relationship with new CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Intel’s role in U.S. semiconductor sovereignty.
• Twenty One Capital (XXI): $781M in a Bitcoin treasury company — the NYSE’s third-largest corporate BTC holder behind Strategy and MARA.
• Taiwan Semiconductor: $603M — completing the AI vertical stack: Arm (architecture) → TSMC (fabrication) → Intel (U.S. foundry) → OpenAI (applications).
• Concentration extreme: Top-3 holdings = 73.5% of portfolio (TMUS 37.4%, INTC 20.7%, SYM 15.3%).
• OpenAI funding: $34.7B committed by end-2025 (~11% ownership). The Stargate Project — a $500B AI infrastructure initiative — is next.
• Holdings expansion: 23 → 32 unique positions. 11 new entries, 2 complete exits. Turnover rate ~66%.

Filing Snapshot

SoftBank Group Corp. (CIK 0001065521) filed its Q4 2025 13F on February 17, 2026, reporting 35 line items across 32 unique holdings with a total value of $15.47B. The portfolio is extraordinarily concentrated: the top-3 holdings account for 73.5% of total value, and the top-5 for 82.4%. This is not a diversified asset manager — it is a highly concentrated strategic investment vehicle reflecting Masa Son’s personal convictions about AI infrastructure, U.S. semiconductor policy, and digital asset adoption.

The $6 Billion NVIDIA Exit

The headline move is unmistakable. SoftBank sold its entire 32.1 million shares of NVIDIA in October 2025 for $5.83 billion. In Q3 2025, NVDA represented 51.4% of the portfolio — the single largest holding by a wide margin.

CFO Goto was blunt on the November 11 earnings call: “This year our investment in OpenAI is large, more than $30 billion needs to be made. For that, we do need to divest our existing assets.” He added the decision had “nothing to do with Nvidia itself.”

The irony is sharp. SoftBank previously sold its entire $3.6B NVIDIA stake in 2019. Those shares would be worth over $150 billion today. This is the second time Masa Son has walked away from the AI chip king — and both times, the reason was the same: capital reallocation toward what Son believed was a bigger opportunity.

Whether OpenAI proves to be that bigger opportunity will define the next chapter of SoftBank’s story.

T-Mobile: The Sprint Inheritance, Not a New Bet

The $5.79B T-Mobile US position that now sits at #1 (37.4% of portfolio) is not a new investment thesis. This is the tail end of SoftBank’s Sprint legacy:

• April 2020: Sprint merged with T-Mobile. SoftBank received 277.2 million TMUS shares (~24% stake).
• December 2023: SoftBank received an additional 48.75 million TMUS shares — a deferred earn-out from the merger agreement, worth ~$7.6B at the time.
• June–September 2025: SoftBank sold 40.2 million shares for $9.17B total, explicitly to fund AI investments.
• Q4 2025: 28.5 million shares remain, valued at $5.79B. This is the residual position after years of monetization.

Read TMUS as a funding source in slow liquidation, not as a portfolio conviction. The direction of travel is clear: more sales will follow as SoftBank’s OpenAI and Stargate commitments come due.

Intel at $3.2 Billion: The Most Contrarian Bet in the Filing

While the market was bearish on Intel — the stock down ~50% from its 2024 highs, 21,000 jobs cut in July 2025 — Masa Son deployed $3.21 billion. This was not a market purchase alone: SoftBank signed a definitive securities purchase agreement with Intel on August 18–19, 2025, buying $2 billion of newly issued common stock directly from Intel at $23/share.

Son’s stated rationale: “Semiconductors are the foundation of every industry. This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will further expand in the United States, with Intel playing a critical role.”

The deeper logic is vertical integration. SoftBank owns Arm (chip architecture). Intel’s foundry business (Intel 18A node) would manufacture chips based on Arm’s designs. Add TSMC ($603M position) as fabrication insurance, and SoftBank is building exposure across the entire AI compute supply chain:

Layer	Company	SoftBank Exposure
Architecture	Arm Holdings	~90% ownership (private)
Fabrication	TSMC	$603M (13F)
U.S. Foundry	Intel	$3.21B (13F)
Application	OpenAI	$34.7B committed (~11%)

New CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Son have a decades-long personal relationship — Intel’s press release noted: “Masa and I have worked closely together for decades.” This is a relationship trade as much as a thesis trade. Intel is also a primary beneficiary of the $8.5B CHIPS Act grants, making SoftBank’s entry politically well-timed.

The Bitcoin Treasury Play: XXI, Circle, and Coinbase

SoftBank quietly built a crypto sleeve in Q4 2025:

• Twenty One Capital (XXI): $781M — 89.1M shares. This Bitcoin-native company went public on NYSE December 9, 2025, launching with ~43,500 BTC (~$4B), making it the third-largest corporate Bitcoin holder behind Strategy (fka MicroStrategy) and MARA. Majority-owned by Tether and Bitfinex, with SoftBank as a minority stakeholder. CEO: Jack Mallers (founder of Strike).
• Circle Internet (CRCL): $7.6M — the USDC stablecoin issuer.
• Coinbase (COIN): $0.3M — a token position in the largest U.S. crypto exchange.

Total crypto exposure: ~$789M (5.1% of portfolio). This is not pure speculation — it is a bet on Bitcoin as institutional treasury asset and stablecoin infrastructure, structured through regulated, publicly listed vehicles.

Symbotic: The AI Warehouse Anchor

Symbotic Inc. remains the #3 holding at $2.37B (15.3%), unchanged at 39.8 million shares from Q3. While everything else rotated, SoftBank held Symbotic steady — a vote of confidence in AI-powered warehouse automation. Symbotic’s robotic systems are deployed across Walmart, Target, and Albertsons, with a $23B+ backlog.

The Rest of the Portfolio: FinTech and Emerging Markets

Beyond the headline positions, SoftBank maintains a long tail of fintech and emerging market bets:

• Inter & Co (INTR): $513M (3.3%) — Brazilian digital bank
• Klarna Group: $445M (2.9%) — Buy-now-pay-later giant
• Webtoon Entertainment (WBTN): $410M (2.6%) — digital comics platform
• Tempus AI (TEM): $319M (2.1%) — AI-powered precision medicine
• Nu Holdings (NU): $299M (1.9%) — Latin American neobank

The fintech sleeve (Klarna, Nu, Inter, Chime, eToro) totals ~$1.4B — about 9% of the portfolio. Combined with the crypto positions, SoftBank’s “digital finance” exposure reaches ~14%.

What Analysts Might Misread

1. “SoftBank is bearish on NVIDIA.” No. The CFO explicitly denied this. The exit was a funding decision, not a valuation call. SoftBank had $40B+ in OpenAI commitments and a $113B total investment pipeline against ~$58.5B in funding capacity. Something had to be sold.

2. “The T-Mobile position is a new telecom bet.” It is not. This is a legacy stake being gradually liquidated. SoftBank has sold over $30B of TMUS shares since 2020. The remaining $5.8B will likely shrink further.

3. “Intel at $3.2B is a pure value play.” Partially. But the deeper story is vertical integration: Arm + Intel foundry + TSMC = control over AI chip manufacturing. The personal relationship between Son and Lip-Bu Tan adds a non-financial dimension.

4. “The 32.7% AUM increase means SoftBank is deploying fresh capital.” The AUM growth is largely driven by new positions (Intel, XXI, TSM) and market appreciation on held positions (Symbotic). But the NVIDIA exit removed $6B — meaning SoftBank deployed ~$10B in new capital while losing $6B to exits. Net new deployment: ~$4B.

What did SoftBank buy in Q4 2025?

SoftBank opened 11 new positions in Q4 2025, led by Intel ($3.21B), Twenty One Capital/XXI ($781M), Taiwan Semiconductor ($603M), Coinbase ($0.3M), Circle Internet ($7.6M), Globalstar ($19.6M), Neumora Therapeutics ($11.5M), Ambiq Micro ($4.2M), Uber ($1.5M), and AbCellera ($1.2M). Total new capital deployed: ~$4.65B.

Why did SoftBank sell all its NVIDIA shares?

SoftBank sold its entire $5.99B NVIDIA position in October 2025 to raise cash for its $40B+ OpenAI investment. CFO Yoshimitsu Goto stated on the November 2025 earnings call: “This year our investment in OpenAI is large, more than $30 billion needs to be made. For that, we do need to divest our existing assets.” He emphasized the sale had “nothing to do with Nvidia itself.”

How much has SoftBank invested in OpenAI?

SoftBank committed $34.7B in OpenAI by end-2025, holding approximately 11% ownership. The first close ($7.5B) occurred in April 2025; the second close ($22.5B) was completed December 26, 2025. SoftBank also leads the Stargate Project — a $500B AI infrastructure initiative announced alongside President Trump, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison in January 2025.

Is SoftBank’s T-Mobile position a new investment?

No. The $5.79B T-Mobile position is the remnant of SoftBank’s Sprint merger stake. SoftBank received 277.2 million TMUS shares when Sprint merged with T-Mobile in April 2020, plus an additional 48.75 million shares in December 2023 as a deferred earn-out. SoftBank has sold over $30B of TMUS shares since 2020 and continues to monetize the position to fund AI investments.

What is SoftBank’s AI infrastructure strategy?

SoftBank is building a vertically integrated AI compute stack: Arm (chip architecture, ~90% ownership) → TSMC ($603M, chip fabrication) → Intel ($3.21B, U.S. foundry) → OpenAI ($34.7B, AI applications). The Vision Fund model of diversified venture investing is being dismantled in favor of concentrated, strategic AI bets. Staff cuts of up to 20% at Vision Fund were reported in September 2025.

How concentrated is SoftBank’s portfolio?

Extremely. The top-3 holdings — T-Mobile (37.4%), Intel (20.7%), and Symbotic (15.3%) — account for 73.5% of the $15.47B portfolio. The top-5 (adding XXI and TSM) reach 82.4%. This level of concentration is rare even among activist funds and reflects SoftBank’s high-conviction, thesis-driven approach.