“I think it’s blasphemy against AI if you say it’s a bubble.” Masayoshi Son chose that word on Wednesday, standing in front of shareholders at SoftBank’s annual general meeting in Tokyo.
Son, who is 68, said artificial intelligence is only starting out. “It’s just the beginning,” he told the room. “AI’s potential will be unlocked.” He has used harsh language on the subject before, once saying that people who raise bubble worries are “not smart enough, period.”
A 1,000 trillion yen target
The meeting gave him room to set out a goal for the next decade: lift SoftBank’s net asset value to 1,000 trillion yen, or approximately $6.189 trillion. He plans to lead the company into his 70s to get there.
The target rests on artificial superintelligence, which Son defines as 10,000 times smarter than a human. He compared the shift with the dot-com era and called it “more than 10x, probably 50x bigger.” He said it could run for 50 to 100 years.
SoftBank is also leaning toward what Son calls “physical ASI.” In that phase the hard part is no longer designing models. It is getting hold of the chips, power and data center capacity to run them at scale. The company is building data centers in the U.S., and Son said he is interested in investing in Tokyo Electric Power Co. Such a tie-up, he suggested, could “increase power supply and bring AI data centers to Japan.”
The OpenAI exposure
His confidence sits on a very concentrated position. SoftBank has put roughly $64.6 billion into OpenAI so far, which gives it an ownership interest of around 13%.
The bet has paid off in the share price. SoftBank stock hit an all-time high in early June and briefly passed Toyota as Japan’s most valuable listed company, a first since February 2000.
That earlier date carries a warning. In February 2000 SoftBank sat at the top of the Japanese market just as the dot-com bubble was about to burst, and within a year its shares had fallen roughly 90%.
The goose and the eggs
Son returned to a metaphor he has used before, casting SoftBank as a goose that lays golden eggs. “Eggs do not lay eggs, the goose lays the eggs,” he said. “SoftBank Group is the factory that lays the eggs.”
Then he put a question to the shareholders. “How long do I have to fight to convince you that the goose did a good job?”
A test is close. Several large technology listings are due in the coming months, and OpenAI and Anthropic are among the companies that have filed. SoftBank’s standing depends heavily on whether those debuts back up the prices the market has already paid.
Sources
Sources
- Talk of a bubble is 'blasphemy against AI' says SoftBank's Son
- SoftBank's Son Calls AI Bubble Talk an Insult to AI
