Symbiotic $SYM ( ▲ 2.2% ) went from hero to hard reset on Wednesday. The robotics stock had rallied nearly 10 percent earlier in the day on reports that the Trump administration was preparing a major push to support the robotics industry. A few hours later, the company erased every bit of that gain after revealing plans to sell 10 million shares.
The offering includes 6.5 million new shares from Symbiotic itself to raise cash for general corporate needs and another 3.5 million shares from its largest shareholder, SoftBank $SFTBY ( ▲ 5.6% ) , which owns more than one third of the company. Investors were not thrilled and sent the stock sharply lower after hours.
The timing is notable. SoftBank has been steadily unwinding large positions as it prepares to make a massive payment to OpenAI. The firm already dumped its entire $5.8 billion Nvidia $NVDA ( ▲ 3.74% )
stake in October and is expected to send more than $20 billion to OpenAI this month. The Symbiotic sale looks like another step in that fundraising effort.
Symbiotic went public in 2022 through a SPAC tied to SoftBank, and Wednesday’s offering shows how quickly enthusiasm in the robotics trade can flip when fresh supply hits the market.