Source: Wall Street See News Author: Bu Shuqing.
At that time, Son considered locking in returns to be a wise move, but today this decision is undoubtedly a huge mistake, especially after Nvidia became the global market cap leader.
As a legendary figure in the field of technology investment, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son gained fame for investing in companies such as Alibaba. But in recent years, he missed out on the biggest AI wave with his investments in Nvidia and OpenAI.
On June 21 local time, Masayoshi Son reviewed at SoftBank's annual shareholder meeting a major mistake in his investment career: selling Nvidia stock too early and missing out on a potential return of up to $150 billion.
Remembering the things that I missed out on is really frustrating. I regret selling Nvidia stock.
Selling Nvidia too early, missed out on $150 billion!
It is reported that SoftBank sold all of its 4.9% stake in Nvidia in 2019 and received a return on investment of $3.3 billion.
At that time, Masayoshi Son believed that locking in returns was a wise move, and SoftBank's cost to purchase Nvidia stock was only $700 million.
But today, the decision is undoubtedly a huge mistake.
In the AI investment frenzy, Nvidia has made great strides in the past two years and briefly became the world's most valuable publicly traded company this week. Although it fell to second place after Microsoft on Thursday, Nvidia's market cap still reached $3.22 trillion, slightly lower than Microsoft's $3.31 trillion.
If SoftBank had held on to Nvidia, its stake would be worth $160 billion today. This means that SoftBank missed out on more than $150 billion in returns when it sold Nvidia in 2019.
Masayoshi Son said regretfully:
Missed a big fish.
According to Masayoshi Son, he had planned to include Nvidia in SoftBank's technological landscape and had extensive acquisition talks with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang after the acquisition of chip design company ARM one month later.
Masayoshi Son hoped to acquire Nvidia and privatize the company while retaining Jensen Huang as its leader, but the negotiations ultimately failed. In addition, he had intended to sell SoftBank's ARM to Nvidia, but the plan failed due to anti-monopoly issues.
It is worth noting that in addition to Nvidia, Masayoshi Son also missed out on AI rising star OpenAI.
Masayoshi Son revealed that he had planned to invest in OpenAI, but OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ultimately decided to accept Microsoft's investment.
Bet on ARM, win in the end?
Despite missing out on Nvidia and OpenAI, Masayoshi Son's bet on ARM has been a huge success and is one of his most successful investment examples.
Last year, ARM went public in the United States and had a market value of $168 billion as of Thursday's close. ARM shares are currently SoftBank's largest asset, with SoftBank owning approximately 90% of them.
"If I were given another chance to choose between ARM and Nvidia, I would choose ARM without hesitation," Masayoshi Son said, as ARM chips dominate the smartphone market and its design is also entering the AI era.
I have great confidence in ARM's future.
"Artificial superintelligence"?
Masayoshi Son also said on Friday that SoftBank's past investments were just a grand ambition he made when he pioneered the era of artificial intelligence.
He expects that in the near future, his mission is to achieve "artificial superintelligence" (ASI) - 10,000 times more intelligent than humans. Artificial superintelligence will be widely used in about 10 years, helping humans cope with diseases, car accidents, wars and even asteroid impacts.
I firmly believe that the development of artificial superintelligence is part of my life's mission.
Son told shareholders earlier on Thursday that the group needs to "find the next big bet without fear of whether it will succeed or fail".
After a series of painful losses, the Vision Fund entered the so-called "defensive mode". Now, SoftBank has a strong balance sheet and billions of dollars in "offensive" funds. SoftBank's net asset value has increased by $126 billion in about a year, reaching $214 billion as of Thursday.
This is in line with comments from SoftBank's CFO Yoshimitsu Goto.
In May, Goto described SoftBank's loan-to-value ratios as "probably too low, to be honest, too safe." Goto said SoftBank needs to take on more risk, especially as artificial intelligence accelerates.
Editor/Lambor