SoftBank Group’s CEO says US$5 trillion a year needed globally to meet AI demand

TOKYO — Worries about a bubble in artificial intelligence investments are absurd, SoftBank Group’s CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday, deriding such doubts as backward and akin to questioning the use of cars and planes.

“To ask whether AI is a bubble is a foolish question,” Son told executives at an annual company event in Tokyo. “AI will transform our lives completely, and do so in a way that generates profits.”

“Those who refuse to evolve are closing down their world. Those who condemn AI are themselves spitting upward,” Son added.

Financial markets have recently been swept by waves of concern that the meteoric rise in share prices of companies like Nvidia, and massive investments in data centres, might not yield returns that match hopes for huge profits from AI.

Son founded SoftBank more than four decades ago and is a pioneer in Japan’s technology investments. He was an early supporter of AI and has invested tens of billions of dollars in related companies.

Son said he estimates that almost US$5 trillion in investments will be needed annually and globally to expand data centers, increase production of computer chips and provide energy systems and other infrastructure for AI.

“In 2040, approximately 20% of the world’s GDP will be replaced by AI-related industries, the world of superintelligence,” he said.

SoftBank oversees a sprawling collection of businesses through what it calls Vision Funds. Its other businesses include telecommunications and energy.

Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. earlier reported its profits for the fiscal year through March soared nearly five-fold to 5 trillion yen ($32 billion) from a year earlier as its AI investments paid off.

The tech giant has invested $34.6 billion in OpenAI. It sold its stake in computer chip maker Nvidia last year to free up funds for more investments in AI and data centers.

SoftBank recently started a battery business in Japan to build next-generation electric power infrastructure in anticipation of growing electricity demand driven by AI use.

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed.

Mayuko Ono, The Associated Press