NVIDIA's 13F Reveals: Heavily Invested $30 Billion in Arch-Rival Intel, SoftBank Follows Suit, Shaking Wall Street

NVIDIA's 13F filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in August revealed an unexpected strategic move. As of the end of June 2024, the company holds over 214.77 million shares of Intel, its direct competitor, with a market value of approximately $30 billion—accounting for 47.3% of NVIDIA's U.S. equity portfolio. Despite competing head-to-head in the data center market, this capital alignment has drawn significant market attention.

Intel's recent turnaround forms the backdrop. Its stock price has surged about 180% since the beginning of the year and nearly quadrupled over the past 12 months. This rally has increased the book value of NVIDIA's original $5 billion private placement investment to $30 billion.

SoftBank has mirrored this strategy. In the same period, it disclosed holding 86.95 million Intel shares (worth about $12.1 billion), representing 66.8% of its U.S. equity holdings. Due to Intel's stock surge, SoftBank recorded an unrealized gain of 1.3 trillion yen in the last quarter, with net profit reaching 347.3 billion yen.

Government and industrial capital are also entering the fray. The Trump administration used subsidies from the CHIPS Act and the Department of Defense's 'Secure Semiconductor Domestication' funding to subscribe to 433.3 million new Intel shares, resulting in a 9.9% ownership stake. SoftBank, after an initial $2 billion strategic investment, has continued to increase its stake and plans to complete its third investment in OpenAI by October 2024, bringing its total investment to $64.6 billion and ownership to approximately 13%.

Analysts point out that NVIDIA's 'buying the rival' move goes beyond financial investment, representing a strategic positioning to lock in control over the x86 ecosystem and AI infrastructure supply chain through capital. SoftBank's dual-pronged 'chips plus large language models' strategy highlights how cross-sector equity holdings are reshaping the semiconductor power structure amid the AI arms race.