Masayoshi son, President and Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group Corp, speaks during the company’s annual general meeting in Tokyo, Japan on Friday, June 27, 2025.
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Softbank “All in”, CEO Masayoshi son said on Openai on Friday, as Japanese tech giants feel their view of “artificial superintendents”.
This year, the Japanese multinational group Openai is increasing its investment in and Participants In joint enterprises such as $ 500 billion Stargate projects.
According to the son, Softbank is now “All In” at the Artificial Intelligence Company, despite reaching about 4.8 trillion Japanese yen ($ 33.2 billion) with total planned investment in the company, it is despite being unrestaded and disabled.
“I think Openai will eventually be listed and, in my belief, will become the most valuable company in the world,” the son said. However, he said that it takes “bravery to invest” in such a company.
As it is revealed, the son has long captured that belief. During the shareholders’ meeting, he revealed that before 2019, Openai CEO Sam Altman asked him if the SoftBank would invest $ 10 billion in the company.
“I said, yes, I will … I was serious because I had financial resources for the performance of vision funds. But, of course, Sam spoke to other potential investors, and finally, he chose Microsoft,” he said.
Microsoft eventually created the deal, which made it an exclusive provider of computing power for the research, products and programming interfaces of Openai for developers. However, microsoft Lost your position Earlier this year as an exclusive cloud provider of Openai.
And that relationship now appears on rocky footing. According to recent reports, Microsoft has not approved an Openai Reorganization Plan This will turn it into a more traditional for-profit company.
Touching the reports, the son suggested that Altman should be selected Softbank, not Microsoft as his early partner, although he said that Softbank was small at the time and Microsoft had his global supply chain, technical talent and brand value.
Softbank is the first Said that it can reduce Part of its $ 30 billion investment Openai’s latest funding round in March If it does not reorganize the beneficial unit till 31 December, $ 20 billion.
However, on Friday, the son stated that his fault on Openai has only become stronger and will continue to deepen his relations with the SoftBank company, whether it is with Microsoft.
Artificial supervision
A part of the son’s trust in Openai is a Softbank’s wish from his wish that he should be at the center of the “artificial superintendent”, which he has It has been told As AI is 10,000 times smarter than humans.
The son said on Friday that he wants Softbank to become the biggest platform provider for this ASI within the next decade, serving as the “organizer of the industry in the artificial superintendent era”.
He said Softbank’s partnership with OpenAII would be required for the schemes acquired by the British Semiconductor Company ARM, which SoftBank acquired in 2016.
SoftBank has become rapidly aggressive in its AI-related investments, including one Acquisition of US-based chips designer ampere for $ 6.5 billion earlier this year.
Bloomberg News reported Last week, citing people familiar with the case, that the son is also considering setting up a $ 1 trillion industrial complex in the US that will develop AI.
