- SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says the investment will make the company a winner in the AI race.
- At the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Son predicted that AI would greatly enhance human capabilities.
- Mr. Son often makes bizarre claims in his presentations despite the failure of past investments such as WeWork.
SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son praised AI at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, saying the company has invested heavily in start-ups and has a majority stake in UK-based chip design firm Arm. Thanks to it, he said he would “rule the world” and win the latest generative AI competition.
Son usually uses the company’s annual shareholder meeting to present his quirky but bold vision for the future. His presentation this year still made some bold predictions, but overall it was quieter than usual.
Since 2017, SoftBank has raised more than $100 billion to invest in tech startups through its Vision Fund, pumping money into companies and making a name for itself in hopes of beating competitors.
The fund’s performance has cast a shadow over Mr. Son. SoftBank’s biggest investments include troubled co-working office firm WeWork and on-demand dog-walking service Wag. SoftBank invested $375 million in the recently shut down startup Zume, which used robots to produce pizzas from the back of delivery vans.
The Vision Fund will reportedly lay off some employees this week after a string of quarterly losses. He also tried to write down investments and sell shares in other companies. But it has had some wins, including investments in TikTok owners ByteDance and DoorDash.
Despite some fatal setbacks, Son’s latest presentation was optimistic about SoftBank’s future thanks to AI. Arm, a major player in AI chipset design and SoftBank’s AI ambitions, is expected to go public soon.
Mr. Son often bases his investments on future projections outlined in presentations. In a past presentation, Son predicted that life expectancy will exceed 200 years by 2400, and that humans will one day learn to coexist with intelligent robots.
In 2020, at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Son used eerie imagery to describe the challenges faced by some startups, comparing the situation to the Great Depression. In another diagram from the same presentation, he explained that startups will fall into the “coronavirus trough,” but that some will gain wings and emerge from the trough better than before.
In another presentation in 2017, Son described SoftBank’s 30-year vision for the future, including telepathy, cloned sheep, and computer-brain interfaces, but think Elon Musk founded Neuralink. And that final vision doesn’t seem so far-fetched now. Son has repeatedly spoken of an “information revolution” in which access to more knowledge through the Internet brings greater happiness.
Son spent much of this year’s presentations discussing the possibilities of AI, with excitement building against the backdrop of new generative AI technologies like OpenAI’s ChatGPT.
Below are slides from SoftBank’s latest investor presentation.
Mr. Son’s insane optimism has led to big miscalculations in the past.
Despite his arrogance, Mr. Son is also reflecting on his own mistakes. SoftBank and its Vision Fund have put more than $10 billion into WeWork, believing shared-office companies can use technology, including AI, to create a more efficient space leasing model.
After the company’s tragic downfall in 2019 when it canceled its initial public offering, Mr. Son told investors that “the investment decisions were wrong in many ways.” WeWork eventually went public, but has struggled to turn a profit due to low profit margins and high operating costs.
The tech industry is currently facing a historic recession, but the excitement about AI has led investors to focus their money on startups that can be early entrants into the trend.
Softbank isn’t the only company making big predictions about AI. Consulting firm McKinsey recently released a report predicting that generative AI could add $4.4 trillion to the global economy annually. Still, the company has made similar claims about blockchain and the metaverse in the past, and those predictions haven’t materialized.
It remains to be seen how generative AI will truly transform and whether startups or tech giants will thrive in this AI boom.
You can watch the entire presentation here.
SoftBank’s Annual Shareholders’ Meeting.
