Masayoshi Son says selling Nvidia shares was a painful move made only to fuel SoftBank’s escalating A.I. ambitions. KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images
Last month, SoftBank sold $5.8 billion worth of Nvidia shares, and CEO Masayoshi Son now says he’s “crying” over the decision. “I don’t want to sell a single share,” he said at the FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo today (Dec. 1). Son explained that the sale was meant to fund SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI and other A.I. bets—not because he believes Nvidia’s stock has entered bubble territory.
Son is currently Japan’s second wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $52.8 billion. His fortune stems from founding and running SoftBank, which has increasingly shifted its focus toward A.I. initiatives and startups in recent years. Today, SoftBank’s Vision Funds hold stakes in more than 400 A.I.-related companies. Major deals this year include backing U.S.-based data centers through Project Stargate, promising to funnel more than $30 billion into OpenAI by the end of the year, and acquiring Ampere, a semiconductor design company, for $6.5 billion last month.
Son’s optimism places him at odds with a growing group of investors worried that today’s sky-high valuations for A.I. companies aren’t sustainable. Nvidia shares have fluctuated in recent weeks amid concerns about a potential A.I. bubble. “People that talk about such a stupid question are not smart enough, period,” said Son in response to such concerns.
The billionaire argued that A.I.’s rapid growth will quickly justify the massive inflows of capital. If the technology eventually captures 10 percent of global GDP, he said, it could generate tens of trillions of dollars in just a few months. With that in mind, Son asked, “Where is the bubble?”
known for his bold projections, Son predicted that A.I. could become 10,000 to 100,000 times smarter than humans in the coming decades. “Nothing is actually stopping the process to make AGI and ASI happen,” said Son, referring to artificial general intelligence and artificial superintelligence. “The funding is coming, chips are coming, models are evolving—whole world is waiting.”
But Son was less bullish when discussing Japan’s own A.I. strategy, which he has criticized as lagging behind global rivals. “The biggest opportunity is still in the United States,” he said, warning that Japan is moving too conservatively and too slowly when it comes to embracing generative A.I. “Wake up, Japan.”
