T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) saw its shares drop by nearly 4.75% after Japan’s SoftBank Group (TYO: 9984) sold a significant portion of its holdings in the telecom giant. The move comes as the Tokyo-based conglomerate ramps up efforts to bankroll its growing ambitions in artificial intelligence.
According to a Bloomberg report, SoftBank offloaded approximately 21.5 million shares of T-Mobile in an overnight block sale, priced at $224 per share. That figure represents a roughly 3% discount compared to T-Mobile’s closing price of $230.99 on Monday.
The $4.8 billion raised from the sale will help fund SoftBank’s aggressive push into AI, led by founder Masayoshi Son. The company has outlined plans to invest up to $30 billion in OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, and is collaborating on the sweeping “Stargate” initiative. This global project envisions deploying hundreds of billions of dollars into data center infrastructure to support future AI systems.
SoftBank’s initial strategy to finance its AI ambitions reportedly included debt options, though those efforts were hindered by market concerns, including uncertainty around U.S. tariffs.
Following the share sale, T-Mobile stock dipped to $219.80 in pre-market trading. The broader market also trended lower, with the S&P 500 down about 0.5%.