SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son told shareholders on Wednesday that artificial intelligence remains in its early stages and any suggestion of a market bubble constitutes a “blasphemy against AI,” adding religious significance to SoftBank’s massive investments in AI companies like Sam Altman’s OpenAI.
Reuters reports that speaking at SoftBank’s annual general meeting in Tokyo, the 68-year-old entrepreneur delivered a passionate defense of AI investments amid growing investor skepticism about the sustainability of the current rally. Son, who has guided SoftBank through multiple market cycles including the dot-com boom and bust and the COVID-19 pandemic downturn, insisted that the technology’s transformative capabilities have barely begun to emerge.
“I think it’s blasphemy against AI if you say it’s a bubble,” Son declared at the meeting. “It’s just the beginning. AI’s potential will be unlocked.”
The comments come as SoftBank’s share price has benefited substantially from Son’s aggressive positioning in OpenAI, the AI startup behind ChatGPT. The investment strategy has helped drive up valuations across the sector, though some market participants have begun questioning whether the rapid price appreciation reflects genuine long-term value or speculative excess.
Son outlined several concrete initiatives that SoftBank is pursuing to capitalize on the AI boom. The company is actively constructing data centers in the United States and has begun manufacturing robots at what it describes as a “physical AI plant.” Son teased an upcoming announcement on the robotics initiative, suggesting significant developments are imminent. “I think we’re the first in the world to have robots manufacturing robots at scale,” he said.
The technology mogul also revealed that SoftBank is exploring an investment in Tokyo Electric Power Co, known as TEPCO. Son indicated that bringing the utility company into the SoftBank ecosystem would serve dual purposes: “If (TEPCO) were to join our group, we would increase power supply and bring AI data centers to Japan,” he explained.
Son revisited a familiar metaphor he has used to describe SoftBank’s business model, comparing the company to a goose that lays golden eggs. “Eggs do not lay eggs, the goose lays the eggs,” he told shareholders. “SoftBank Group is the factory that lays the eggs.” He expressed visible frustration about the persistent disconnect between the company’s market valuation and its underlying asset base, noting that SoftBank’s market capitalization of approximately 37 trillion yen, or about $229 billion, stands at roughly half the estimated value of its assets, which he placed at 74 trillion yen. “How long do I have to fight to convince you that the goose did a good job?” Son asked the assembled investors.
Son may have been using blasphemy in a figurative sense, but that doesn’t change the fact that many people are turning to AI as a replacement for the Christian God. Breitbart News social media director Wynton Hall has written his instant bestseller Code Red: The Left, the Right, China, and the Race to Control AI to serve as the definitive guide on how the MAGA movement can create positions on AI that benefit humanity without handing control of our nation to the leftists of Silicon Valley or allowing the Chinese to take over the world.
Read more at Reuters here.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of AI, free speech, and online censorship.