SoftBank Group’s founder and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son set out a bold ten-year vision on Friday, telling shareholders he intends to propel the Japanese investment conglomerate into the global leader of “artificial super intelligence” (ASI).
Speaking at SoftBank’s annual meeting, Son declared that he want the company to leap forward and become the platform provider in the artificial super intelligence era, putting SoftBank in the race with global tech giants such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google, all of whom benefit from a powerful “winner-takes-all” market dynamic.
Son described artificial super intelligence as a level of AI able to outperform human intelligence by a factor of 10,000—a leap he believes is closer than many imagine.
Underscoring this vision, SoftBank has renewed its appetite for high-stakes investments, echoing the aggressive moves that once put the group on the map with its early Alibaba investment, but which also resulted in costly missteps like the collapse of WeWork.
This year, SoftBank has signed a series of eye-catching AI-related deals, including acquiring U.S. chip designer Ampere for $6.5 billion and committing as much as $40 billion to OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT.
Son revealed that SoftBank’s cumulative agreed investment in OpenAI has now reached $32 billion since it first bought in during the autumn of 2024, and he voiced regret at not taking an earlier stake. He also tipped OpenAI as a future IPO candidate.
Years ago, SoftBank held a roughly 5% stake in Nvidia, the current heavyweight of AI chips, but exited that position in 2019—well before the generative AI boom sparked by ChatGPT in late 2022. Nvidia has since soared to become one of the world’s most valuable tech firms, underscoring the high-stakes nature of SoftBank’s investment approach.
Son’s renewed spree follows a period of retrenchment, marked by the sharp reversal in valuations of high-growth tech ventures SoftBank backed via its Vision Funds.
The group’s fortunes shifted with chipmaker Arm’s successful $5 billion IPO in September 2023. The rally in Arm’s shares since debut has provided SoftBank with a stronger asset base, facilitating further borrowing and investment.
Despite the group’s penchant for risk, Son reassured shareholders that SoftBank would continue to pursue investments with a measure of caution, highlighting the company’s financial resilience and large user ecosystem as a buffer during market cycles, and an enabler for taking calculated risks when opportunity arises.
