After years of a more cautious investment policy, SoftBank is once again attracting industry attention. Masayoshi Son, the legendary founder and CEO of the Japanese group, has announced that his goal is to make SoftBank the global platform leader for so-called artificial superintelligence (ASI) within a decade. It’s a bold statement, especially as ASI is a technology that – at least in theory – is expected to outperform human intelligence by up to 10,000 times.
In the background of this vision is SoftBank’s return to aggressive investments. After the painful experience with WeWork and the repricing of its Vision Fund portfolio, the group has rebuilt its position with, among other things, Arm’s successful IPO in 2023 and an increase in the value of its shares. Now Son is once again betting on disruptive technologies – and doing so with aplomb.
SoftBank has already spent more than $30bn on shares in OpenAI and is planning further investments of up to $40bn. Added to this is the acquisition of Ampere, a chipmaker, for $6.5bn – a strategic move in view of the growing importance of hardware infrastructure for AI development. These moves show that Son wants SoftBank to play a role not only as an investor, but as an organiser of the entire future intelligence ecosystem.
While Son’s vision may seem futuristic, its market context is concrete. The value of AI companies is growing at a record pace. Nvidia – once partly controlled by SoftBank – is now valued at more than $3 trillion and dominates the AI chip market. OpenAI, backed by Microsoft among others, is on track to go public. Son does not want to miss another opportunity.
SoftBank’s return to being an active player in the new technology market is not risk-free, but it may once again push the boundaries of what we consider viable in investing in the future.
