Masayoshi Son says AI will help humans evolve, denounces bubble talk as “blasphemy”
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said that talk of a bubble is an insult to AI and announced he wouldn’t retire until the company reaches artificial superintelligence, or ASI, which he defines as being 10,000 smarter than a human.
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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son rejected claims of an AI investment bubble as “blasphemy” and pledged not to retire until achieving ASI, aiming for a six-trillion-dollar company valuation.
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Son says AI and robotics will help humans evolve, not replace them, and SoftBank is focused on AI models, chips, infrastructure, and robot manufacturing.
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Backed by major stakes in Arm and OpenAI, SoftBank’s market value surged past Toyota earlier in June, making it Japan’s most valuable public company.
The 68-year-old veteran investor is shelving retirement plans and says he will stay at the helm of the Japanese multinational for the next 10 to 15 years, promising to bring the company’s net asset value to over ¥1 quadrillion ($6 trillion) over the next decade or so.
"I have become greedier," Son said during an annual shareholders meeting in Tokyo on June 24th, adding, “I will stay healthy as long as I can."
Son, who has experienced market booms and busts during his career, including the dot-com bubble and the COVID-19 pandemic, brushed aside concerns about AI being another bubble, arguing that such characterization is “an insult” to the technology that’s still in its early stages.
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“I think it's blasphemy against AI if you say it's a bubble," Son said. "It's just the beginning. AI's potential will be unlocked.”
Investments in ChatGPT maker OpenAI and British semiconductor and software design company Arm propelled SoftBank’s share to record highs this month even as investors questioned the sustainability of an AI investment boom.
With market capitalization at $301 billion, SoftBank overtook Toyota as Japan’s most valuable publicly traded company earlier this month.
Softbank, which has a 90% stake in Arm and has committed to investing about $65 billion in OpenAI, has been ramping up its investments in other AI-related companies, including robotics, and also data centers in countries like the US and France.
In Japan, the conglomerate is one of the key candidates to invest in Tokyo Electric Power, the country’s largest electric utility company, to build data centers there.
AI “won’t be replacing humans”
Son also told shareholders that SoftBank had started manufacturing robots at its “physical AI plant,” saying he believed the company was “the first in the world to have robots manufacturing robots at scale,” but didn’t provide more details.
He said robotics will continue to be one of the four areas SoftBank would continue to focus, which also include AI models, chips, and infrastructure, calling the company a “goose laying golden AI eggs.”
“We are going to pursue ASI all the way through, without holding anything back. And if I’m to take on something like that, I won’t be content unless we’re the best,” he said.
On fears over AI’s impact on the jobs, he said that ASI “won’t be replacing humans.” He added, “But it will help humans evolve. It’s a tool for human advancement, a colleague and a partner.”
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