Greetings N2K reader!

This week’s world famous News Haiku^TM competition theme is that Peloton is recalling 833,000 Bike+ units after seat post failures that hurt people’s butts (and other bits). Send me your entry — to our spiffy new email address, haiku at cheddar dot com — by noon ET on Thursday for consideration by your Cheddar peers. Now for something completely different.

—Matt Davis, Need2Know Chedditor

News You Need2Know

What’s the stock market up to, eh?

$SPX ( ▲ 0.21% )   $DJI ( ▲ 1.18% )   $NDX ( ▼ 0.25% )

Companies mentioned in today’s newsletter

  $SFTBY ( ▲ 3.59% )   $NVDA ( ▼ 2.96% )   $PLTR ( ▼ 1.37% )   $ABB ( ▲ 1.06% )   $MORN ( ▼ 0.25% )   $PLTR ( ▼ 1.37% )   $BTC.X ( ▼ 0.94% )   $ETH.X ( ▼ 2.75% )   $AAPL ( ▲ 2.16% )   $TSLA ( ▼ 1.26% )   $NWSA ( ▲ 0.11% )   $BBERG ( 0.0% )   $TMUS ( ▲ 2.97% )  

SoftBank cashes out of Nvidia

SoftBank $SFTBY ( ▲ 3.59% ) has sold its entire stake in Nvidia $NVDA ( ▼ 2.96% ) for $5.83 billion. The move aligns with the Japanese conglomerate's significant investment into OpenAI, as it channels $22.5 billion into the ChatGPT maker. Yoshimitsu Goto, SoftBank’s Chief Financial Officer, explained during an investor presentation that the sale is part of the company’s strategy for “asset monetization.” 

While Nvidia shares dipped by 2% following the announcement, analysts suggest the sale reflects SoftBank’s need for liquidity rather than concerns about Nvidia or the AI market. “This should not be seen, in our view, as a cautious or negative stance on Nvidia,” said Rolf Bulk of New Street Research. SoftBank’s AI ambitions involve significant spending, including recent investments in ABB’s $ABB ( ▲ 1.06% ) robotics unit and its $500 billion Stargate project.

Dan Baker of Morningstar $MORN ( ▼ 0.25% ) emphasized that this move doesn’t represent a shift in SoftBank’s AI strategy: “[SoftBank] made a point of saying that it wasn’t any view on Nvidia...At the end of the day, they are using the money to invest in other AI-related companies,” he said.

Hedge fund investor Michael Burry of “The Big Short” fame said he was shorting Nvidia stock last week, along with that of Palantir $PLTR ( ▼ 1.37% ) , a software and services company that builds AI-based applications.

Song of the day: Liam Kazar, ‘Didn’t I”

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter Liam Kazar has drawn comparisons to Josh Ritter. He was a chef before he chose to concentrate on music, and this is certainly a tasty snack from his new album “Pilot Light.”