Yesterday (August 18), SoftBank announced a $2 billion investment in Intel. The conglomerate led by Masayoshi’s son bought about 2% of shares in the U.S. chipmaker at a slight discount ($23 per share).
“For more than 50 years, Intel has been a trusted leader in innovation,” his son said in a statement. “This strategic investment reflects our belief that advanced semiconductor manufacturing and supply will be further expanded in the U.S., and Intel plays a key role.”
SoftBank is known for its bold bets and is particularly aggressive in AI, supporting AI startups like Perplexity AI and Openai, bringing $40 billion in financing to the latter, the $300 billion valued at Chatgpt Maker earlier this year. In January, SoftBank also joined OpenAI, Oracle and others to launch Stargate, a $500 billion initiative aimed at improving domestic AI development over the next four years.
On the semiconductor front, SoftBank is the majority owner of Chip Designer Arm, positioning it as an NVIDIA competitor last year at Graphcore’s price. The company previously owned approximately 5% of NVIDIA but sold its stake in 2019 when AI BOOM issued Chipmaker value in AI Boom. SoftBank has since rebuilded its NVIDIA holdings to $3 billion.
Although the surge in demand for AI chips has made NVIDIA the most valuable publicly listed company in the world, Intel has been working to capitalize on the boom. The Santa Clara, California-based company was once a leader in semiconductor manufacturing, lagging behind competitors in regions such as GPUs. Its own stock fell more than 7% today, while Intel shares rose 7% after SoftBank revealed its investment.
The U.S. Eyes is a stake in Intel
Another force that strengthens Intel’s share price today is the report that the U.S. government is considering a 10% stake in the company. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told CNBC today that the administration is considering converting funds that Intel should have been under Biden-era chips and scientific laws into equity.
The move will bring a new twist to the turbulent relationship between Washington and the semiconductor industry. Earlier this month, President Donald Trump publicly called on Intel CEO Lip-bu Tan to resign on the grounds that he returned after meeting Tan at the White House last week. In August, the government also announced that NVIDIA and AMD could resume exporting chips to China, but only if they paid 15% of their revenue from sales.
Tan, who took over as Intel as Intel CEO in March, focused on catching up with competitors, emphasized engineering, cut costs and lay off about 25,000 employees during 2025. Tan’s veteran has close ties to his son, and has previously served on SoftBank’s board until 2022.
“We are delighted to deepen our relationship with SoftBank, a company at the forefront of many emerging technologies and innovation areas, and share our commitment to advancing leadership in technology and manufacturing in the U.S.,” Tan said in a statement. “Masa and I have worked closely for decades and I appreciate his confidence in this investment.”
