NEW YORK - SoftBank Group Co. sold roughly $2 billion in shares of US ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. last week, according to a document submitted by the Japanese firm's affiliate to U.S. financial regulators.

It is the first time for the Japanese telecom giant to reduce its stake in Uber since it invested in the company in 2018, US media reported.

The document shows that SoftBank Group unloaded 38 million shares of Uber at a price of $53.46 per share last Thursday. The firm now owns about 184 million Uber shares.

SoftBank Group has poured huge amounts of funding, either directly or through the $100 billion Vision Fund, into companies capitalizing on the sharing economy.

But SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son has become cautious about new investments since last year as the pandemic continued to rage around the world, leading to restrictions on business activities and tourism.

Uber went public at the New York Stock Exchange in 2019. Although its share price tumbled to below $20 at one point amid fear of deteriorating profits due to the coronavirus pandemic, it has been trending upward recently.