Episode summary
Softbank Sells Nvidia Stake for $5.8 Billion to Fund AI Bets | Bloomberg Intelligence
Bloomberg Intelligence
· · 25 min · Hosts: Paul Sweeney, Scarlet Fu · Guests: Ed Ludlow, Geetha Ranganathan, Justin Teresi, Matthew Palazola
Summary
SoftBank sold its entire Nvidia stake for $5.8 billion, and the host framed the move as a financing decision rather than a bearish call on Nvidia. An analyst said the sale should be read as SoftBank realizing gains to fund other AI ambitions, including public and private investments, possible take-private deals in compute, and continued capital deployment through its Vision funds. The discussion also noted SoftBank’s exposure to OpenAI and the Stargate data-center project, raising questions about concentration risk and whether the group has enough diversification across AI bets.
CoreWeave also cut fiscal 2025 revenue guidance to $5.05 billion-$5.15 billion from a prior high end of $5.35 billion after a third-party developer slipped on a data-center build. The analyst said the shortfall reflects delayed capacity for one customer, even though demand remains strong and the company still cannot get infrastructure online fast enough.
Paramount Skydance’s earnings were described as mixed, but investors focused on stronger-than-expected 2026 EBITDA guidance of $3.5 billion and a higher cost-cutting target. The analyst said management downplayed the need for Warner Bros. Discovery, though the company may still need a transformative deal to compete in streaming and unlock more synergies in linear TV.
Key takeaways
- SoftBank’s $5.8 billion Nvidia sale was presented as a funding source for AI investments, not necessarily a negative signal on Nvidia.
- The analyst said SoftBank is still exposed to AI concentration risk through OpenAI, Stargate and other compute bets.
- CoreWeave lowered fiscal 2025 revenue guidance by about $200 million because a third-party data-center developer is behind schedule.
- Paramount Skydance lifted 2026 EBITDA guidance to $3.5 billion and raised cost-cutting ambitions to $3 billion.
- The analyst said Warner Bros. Discovery remains the transformative asset that could change Paramount Skydance’s streaming scale, but a deal would likely require substantial equity.
Notable quotes
“they're selling out of the entire stake, and that's worth reiterating. It's all of it in one go”
“the stock the company kind of overd delivered when it came to streaming profitability, which is the big thing that everybody's looking for”
“they think, uh, you know, they don't there's no mustave for them. So they really kind of downplayed the whole need for M&A”
“So, we're talking about a really, really ancient case. But basically, what a lot of folks don't know is when you have those really valuable premium cards, right”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios podcasts radio news. You're listening to the Bloomberg Intelligence Podcast. Catch us live weekdays at 10 a.m.
Eastern on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto with the Bloomberg Business App. Listen on demand wherever you get your podcasts or watch us live on YouTube. A lot of news flow today on the tech front in Nvidia.
I mean, when Masasan sells stock in a company, that's news to me. That is news. But I mean, does he have great timing or does he have poor timing?
That's my question. Ah, yep. I don't know.
I mean, he made I don't know. He sold it for 5.8 billion. What are you going to do with that?
Ed Lelo, he does all this tech stuff out there in San Francisco. He is the uh BTE co-anchor alongside Caroline Hyde. So, Ed, you know, whenever Masahiroan does anything, it really gets people's attention here.
What do you make of this trade? your heads are in the right place. I mean, they're selling out of the entire stake, and that's worth reiterating.
It's all of it in one go. $5.6 billion, which for a $5 trillion company, almost $5 trillion company, is is not that much. But it's also not unprecedented.
And what Scarlet was saying about timing, SoftBank sold out of Nvidia once before. That was in 2019, right before the kind of chat GBT explosion in in AI data center demand. But then they kind of realized 2020 they they needed to get back in and they slowly built up a stake which resulted in on paper gains that were really significant.
So the market seeing this even though Nvidia's down I think it's down 2 and a half% right guys not necessarily as an an issue with Nvidia or a signal that SoftBank has concerns about Nvidia they're seeing it or taking SoftBank at its word that this is just financing for the other things they want to do.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- ai capex
- nvidia stake sale
- media earnings cost cuts
- antitrust interchange-fee settlement
- berkshire hathaway succession
Companies and tickers mentioned
- SFTBY
- NVDA
- V
- MA
- BRK-B
- SoftBank Group
- Nvidia
- CoreWeave
- Paramount Skydance
- Paramount Global
- Visa
- Mastercard
- Berkshire Hathaway
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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