TOKYO (AP) \u2014 Japanese technology giant SoftBank said Tuesday it has sold its stake in Nvidia, raising $5.8 billion to pour into other investments. It also reported its profit nearly tripled in the first half of this fiscal year from a year earlier.<\/p>\n
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. said it sold the stake in Silicon Vally-based Nvidia<\/a> in October, a move that reflects its shift in focus to OpenAI, owner of the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT.<\/p>\n SoftBank reported its profit in April-September soared to about 2.5 trillion yen (about $13 billion). Its sales for the six month period rose 7.7% year-on-year to 3.7 trillion yen ($24 billion), it said. <\/p>\n The company\u2019s fortunes tend to fluctuate because it invests in a range of ventures, including through its tech-focused Vision Funds. Those recently have paid off.<\/p>\n In February, SoftBank\u2019s chairman Masayoshi Son joined Trump, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle in announcing a major investment of up to $500 billion in a project to develop artificial intelligence called Stargate.<\/a><\/p>\n SoftBank has invested tens of billions of dollars in OpenAI. The two companies also plan to provide AI services in Japan. <\/p>\n Selling SoftBank\u2019s stake in Nvidia reflects Son\u2019s shift in strategy and also nets his company a healthy profit thanks to the recent runup in Nvidia\u2019s market value. <\/p>\n Nvidia recently become the first $5 trillion company, just three months after it broke through the $4 trillion<\/a> barrier. It plans a $100 billion investment in OpenAI<\/a> as part of a partnership that will add at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia AI data centers to ramp up OpenAI\u2019s computing power.<\/p>\n The chip maker and other winners in the frenzy<\/a> around artificial-intelligence technology have been driving much of this year\u2019s rally in share prices. Critics say stock prices<\/a> of the tech giants have soared too high and too fast in the mania around AI<\/a>, drawing comparisons to the 2000 dot-com bubble that ultimately burst.<\/p>\n SoftBank and Nvidia still have strong relations since various ventures that SoftBank invests in use Nvidia technology. <\/p>\n SoftBank also has investments in Arm Holdings and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., computer chip makers that like Nvidia are benefitting greatly from the growth of AI.<\/p>\n SoftBank stocks have nearly doubled in value in the past year. They gained nearly 2% Tuesday. <\/p>\n Nvidia\u2019s shares fell 1.3% in premarket trading early Tuesday. They jumped 5.8% on Monday.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n