Masayoshi Son Rues Selling Nvidia Stake And Missing Out On $150 Billion .

TOKYO -- SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son on Friday lamented what turned out to be a $150 billion blunder: selling shares in Nvidia years before the chip maker became one of the world's most valuable companies.

Son, known for some of the most successful investments in technology history, recalled one of his less-cherished moments on Friday at SoftBank Group's annual shareholder meeting in Tokyo.

"It's frustrating to remember the ones that I missed," Son said. "I had to tearfully sell the shares" of Nvidia, he said, because at the time SoftBank's Vision Fund investment vehicle felt it needed to lock in returns.

"The fish that got away was big," Son said.

In 2019, the Vision Fund sold its entire 4.9% stake in Nvidia and booked a $3.3 billion return on its investment.

It seemed like a big win, since SoftBank had spent about $700 million for its stake. But Nvidia was just getting started in its rise to the top, powered by demand for its chips in artificial-intelligence applications.

This past week, Nvidia briefly became the world's most valuable listed firm, before falling back Thursday into second place behind Microsoft. As of Thursday's close in the U.S., Nvidia was valued at about $3.22 trillion, just behind Microsoft at $3.31 trillion.

Had SoftBank's fund held on to its Nvidia stake, it would be worth around $160 billion today, meaning SoftBank missed out on a gain of more than $150 billion by selling in 2019.

Son said Friday he once had a plan to make Nvidia part of his technology conglomerate. The month after SoftBank bought U.K. chip designer Arm in 2016, he sat down with Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang in the yard of Son's home in California and had a four-hour talk about a potential acquisition, Son said.

"There was one theme: 'I bought Arm. Now I want to buy you, Nvidia,' " Son recalled.

Son wanted to acquire Nvidia and privatize the company while keeping Huang as the leader, but the deal didn't work out, he said. An Nvidia representative declined to comment.