Masayoshi Son has recently repeatedly offered many strange views when investing in AI companies. He considers himself to have a noble mission in developing this field.
Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank, speaks in Tokyo. Photo: Bloomberg.
Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, is known as a rather special figure. He is a somewhat risky investor who always prioritizes billions of dollars in startups that have the potential to change the world.
However, the billionaire admitted that many investment plans do not always go according to his wishes. In 2019, Mr. Son described the failure with WeWork as painful for him and that it was a “harsh lesson” in life.
At the end of the 2022 fiscal year, Vision Fund posted a record loss of $32 billion after big mistakes for Chinese AI company SenseTime and Indonesian e-commerce giant GoTo. This time, the poor performance has caused the CEO of SoftBank to turn to “attack” when continuing to pour capital into many potential projects.
So far, this tactic seems to be starting to work. SoftBank’s flagship hedge fund raised $4.6 billion following the success of several more prominent investments in ByteDance and food delivery company DoorDash in fiscal 2023.
After facing many obstacles, admitting mistakes, and learning lessons, Masayoshi Son has moved on to a new obsession, which is artificial intelligence (ASI). Softbank’s CEO predicts an ASI-dominated future, with 10,000 times more likely to excel than the smartest person on Earth. Moreover, the billionaire believes he was brought to Earth to make this future a reality.
Masayoshi Son believes he has a special mission in the field of AI. Photo: New York Times.
“What was SoftBank founded for? What was Masa Son born for? It may sound strange, but I think I was born to realize ASI. I’m very serious about that,” billionaire Masayoshi Son told shareholders at its annual meeting at the end of June.
The billionaire argued that every investment he made throughout his career, from Uber to Alibaba, was just a “kick-off” for investments in AI. “Realizing the importance of ASI is my only focus,” Mr. Son said.
This extreme focus on AI comes after SoftBank’s promise to make five large-scale investments, worth at least $1 billion, by May. Prior to this announcement, the CEO of SoftBank also invested in many AI companies, including a $200 million investment in Tempus AI, a medical data analytics startup.
SoftBank’s latest bet comes in early July as the company continues to invest in Perplexity AI, an AI-powered Internet search startup in hopes of competing with industry empire Google.
In addition, Masayoshi Son also highlighted opportunities in the field of autonomous driving, AI robots, data centers, and many other fields that he will aim for in the future.