SoftBank Vision Fund offloads entire Nvidia stake
Latest blow for US graphics chipmaker which has faced heavy share-price decline
SoftBank’s Vision Fund has sold its entire stake in Nvidia in the latest blow for the California-based chipmaker, shares in which have nearly halved since the end of September.
SoftBank said on Wednesday the fund had sold the Nvidia shares, which were valued at ¥398bn ($3.63bn) as of December 31. The fund held about 29m shares prior to the divestment in January, making it the fourth-largest investor in the company, according to Bloomberg data.
SoftBank said it had seen a valuation loss of nearly ¥300bn from the investment during the third quarter, although the Japanese conglomerate noted that it had recorded a derivatives gain of almost ¥250bn from investments designed to limit the downside risk of the Nvidia stake.
The announcement of the fund’s divestment came in SoftBank’s third-quarter earnings report out on Wednesday, which showed the company’s Vision and Delta investment funds together recorded operating income of ¥808.7bn for the period, up from just ¥236.4bn a year ago.
Shares in Nvidia have fallen 48 per cent since late September and in January the Silicon Valley-based graphics chipmaker cut its fourth-quarter revenue forecast by half a billion dollars, warning of a slowdown of sales to gamers in China.