SoftBank Just Cashed Out $4.8B -- Here's Where Masayoshi Son Is Putting the Money Next

SoftBank (SFTBF) has just raised $4.8 billion by selling 21.5 million shares of T-Mobile TMUS at $224 apiece pricing at the low end of the $224$228 range and marking a 3% discount to Monday's close. It's the biggest U.S. block trade since TD Bank's $13.1 billion Schwab selloff earlier this year. T-Mobile shares dropped 3.8% in early trading, while SoftBank's U.S.-listed shares nudged up about 1%. The stake sold accounts for roughly 1.9% of T-Mobile's outstanding shares, trimming down SoftBank's holdings from 85.4 million as of March 31. Bank of America was the sole bookrunner on the deal.

This isn't just portfolio trimming it's Masayoshi Son playing long ball in AI. The SoftBank founder is reportedly eyeing up to $30 billion in OpenAI and helping bankroll Stargate, a global hyperscale data center project that could exceed $500 billion. Originally planned as a debt-heavy venture, the financing hit snags due to U.S. tariff uncertainties. Bloomberg Intelligence suggests this recent sale could shave 12 percentage points off SoftBank's loan-to-value ratio. But with Son potentially targeting $40 billion across OpenAI, Stargate, and a possible Ampere Computing deal, analysts believe SoftBank may need to raise another $10 billion to avoid slipping past a 30% LTV downgrade trigger.

SoftBank originally acquired the T-Mobile stake in 2020 through the $26.5 billion Sprint merger, then sold down significantly to fund a record stock buyback that same year. While Deutsche Telekom remains T-Mobile's largest shareholder at 59% including shares SoftBank has pledged to vote under its direction this latest exit signals another chapter in Son's playbook: recycle old wins to fund new bets. If the Stargate project and OpenAI partnership materialize as planned, this might be just the opening act in SoftBank's next AI supercycle.