SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son was “crying” over selling Nvidia, says “I wish to have unlimited money”

SoftBank’s CFO made it clear a few weeks ago that the Japanese investment firm’s sale of its $5.8 billion Nvidia position in October had “nothing to do” with the chip designer.

Speaking at the FII Priority Asia forum on Monday, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son underlined that sentiment, telling the world how much that move was one he had to make, but not one he wanted to make:

“I wish to have unlimited money. I respect Jensen, I respect Nvidia so much; I don’t want to sell a single share. I just had more need for money to invest into OpenAI, invest into our opportunities, so I was crying to sell Nvidia shares. If I had more money, of course, I wanted to keep Nvidia shares, all the time, any time.”

The plunge in SoftBank shares as of late — the company’s ADR is down 39% since peaking at the end of October — is due in part to its exposure to OpenAI, something that also might inspire tears.

SoftBank owes OpenAI $22.5 billion by year-end to finance its increased stake in the ChatGPT maker. Its AI initiatives include its substantial investment in OpenAI, as well as data center sites that are part of Project Stargate.

Son also took the time to clap back at critics who deem the massive tide of money pouring into AI to be a bubble, calling them “not smart enough” and outlining his vision for return on investment.

In 10 years, he believes AI will be much, much smarter than humans, and that “at least 10%” of global GDP will be substituted by superintelligence and physical AI robots. If it takes $10 trillion in investment to get to that point, he says the cumulative capital expenditure would be recouped in just six months.