Stemness depends on a series of specific transcription regulators that suppress default differentiation and/or promote self-renewal. A prominent example thereof is SOX2 (SRY homology Box 2), a protein that further contributes to pluripotency and the reprogramming of somatic cells to induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Here we uncover that SOX2 exerts these functions not only via transcriptional roles, but also by directly regulating translation. We show that SOX2 associates with ribosomal 40S subunits in the cytoplasm to alter the protein expression of signaling factors and metabolic components pivotal for stemness. Specifically, a low complexity region in the C-terminal part of SOX2 that interacts with the ribosome to modulate protein synthesis, is identified as critically required for SOX2-induced clonogenicity in human cancer cells and the reprogramming of fibroblasts to iPSCs. Mechanistically, SOX2 translationally enforces insulin/PI3K signaling while suppressing the formation of acetyl CoA synthetase 2 (ACSS2) protein, a driver of acetate consuming cell differentiation. Expression of either full-length SOX2 or its C-terminus only increases glucose consumption and acidification in cultured human cancer cells, thereby promoting clonogenicity. In the absence of SOX2 expression, ACSS2 knockdown or supplementation with acetate provide a partial rescue. Together, these data indicate novel ribosome-based mechanistic contributions of pluripotency factors to stemness and cell fate determination.