(Bloomberg) – SoftBank Group Corp. has invested approximately $ 3.9 billion in 25 of the largest technology companies in the world, including Amazon.com Inc., Tesla Inc., Netflix Inc. and Alphabet Inc.
The Japanese conglomerate owned $ 1.04 billion in Amazon shares, its largest investment, a $ 475 million stake in Alphabet, $ 248.6 million in Adobe Inc. and $ 189 million from Netflix, the Tokyo-based company said in a submission to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on August 17. Its stake in Tesla was worth $ 309,000 as of June 30, it said.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is expanding the company’s investment activities from private startups to equity stocks at a time when the largest technology stocks are near record highs. He unveiled a new asset management arm on a call for revenue last week, saying it is part of a broader bet on transformative technologies. The Japanese company is targeting investments of more than $ 10 billion in public shares, according to people familiar with the initiative.
Read more: SoftBank is said to be targeting more than $ 10 billion in public investment
The filing also shows a $ 183 million in Microsoft Corp., $ 111.5 million in PayPal Holdings Inc. and $ 108.8 million in Zoom Video Communications Inc. Also on the list were several Chinese names, including streaming giants Bilibili Inc. and iQiyi Inc., as well as Singapore’s Sea Ltd., one of the world’s best performers in the past 18 months. While Son said SoftBank invested in Facebook Inc. and Apple Inc., the companies were not mentioned during the recent revelation of US-listed holdings.
SoftBank has notched some gains in public offerings in recent years. Benefit from investing in Charter Communications Inc. in early 2018 and in US chip designer Nvidia Corp. The latest submission shows that SoftBank has taken a position worth $ 180.9 million in Nvidia.
The asset management team is led by Akshay Naheta, a senior vice president in Abu Dhabi, the people said. The group has amassed quiet multibillion-dollar offices in U.S. Big Tech companies in recent months, the people said.
“As an investment company, we need to explore different angles and scope. But our focus is still on companies that betray the information revolution, “Son said during the recent recent presentation by SoftBank.” This is the goal of our company. “
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