Nvidia CEO Huang regrets not taking SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son’s offer to help buy the company

Jensen Huang

Nvidia chief executive officer (CEO) Jensen Huang expressed regret over turning down an offer from SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son to help fund a full acquisition of the company nearly a decade ago. At the time, SoftBank was the largest shareholder in Nvidia, with a 5 percent stake.

Huang was talking to Son, who is the SoftBank group chairman and CEO,  on November 13 at Nvidia AI Summit Japan.

“Masa (Masayoshi) said, ‘Jensen, the market doesn’t understand the value of Nvidia. Your future is incredible, but the market doesn’t get it',’” Huang said during a fireside chat with Son. Seeing the promise in Nvidia and the future of AI, Son offered to lend Huang the money needed to acquire the company outright.

Huang declined the offer, a decision he came to regret. “Now I regret it,” Huang said, laughing as he and Son shared a lighthearted moment.

Son, Japan’s wealthiest man, once held a 5 percent stake in the chip company fuelling today’s AI boom — a position now valued at around $160 billion. But over five years ago, he sold the entire stake, then worth under $4 billion, after a steep decline threatened his fund’s performance.

Had Son kept the shares, they would now surpass even his landmark investment in Alibaba, where SoftBank was once the largest shareholder.

While Son has invested in companies around the world that show potential for AI-driven growth through SoftBank Vision Funds, Huang has steered NVIDIA’s rise to a global leader in AI and accelerated computing through its Graphics Processing Units.

During the event, Huang also announced a partnership between NVIDIA and SoftBank to build an AI infrastructure for Japan, a first, to accelerate transformation across the nation’s robotics, automotive, healthcare, and telecom industries.

Apart from Japan's cloud leader SoftBank Corp, GMO Internet Group, Highreso, KDDI, Rutilea, and SAKURA internet will also be a part of the deal.