{"id":210863,"date":"2026-09-02T02:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/210863\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T02:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T02:52:23","slug":"softbank-ceo-says-asking-if-ai-is-a-bubble-is-foolish-estimates-5-trillion-needed-to-meet-demand-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/210863\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank CEO says asking if AI is a bubble is “foolish”, estimates $5 trillion needed to meet demand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Worries about a bubble in\u00a0artificial intelligence<\/a>\u00a0investments are absurd, SoftBank<\/a> Group\u2019s CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday, deriding such doubts as backward and akin to questioning the use of cars and planes.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo ask whether AI is a bubble is a foolish question,\u201d Son told executives at an annual company event in Tokyo. \u201cAI will transform our lives completely, and do so in a way that generates profits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThose who refuse to evolve are closing down their world. Those who condemn AI are themselves spitting upward,\u201d Son added.<\/p>\n

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

Son founded SoftBank more than four decades ago and is a pioneer in Japan\u2019s technology investments. He was an early supporter of AI and has invested tens of billions of dollars in related companies.<\/p>\n

Son said he estimates that almost $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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2040, approximately 20% of the world\u2019s GDP will be replaced by AI-related industries, the world of superintelligence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

SoftBank oversees a sprawling collection of businesses through what it calls Vision Funds. Its other businesses include telecommunications and energy.<\/p>\n

Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. earlier\u00a0reported its profits<\/a>\u00a0for 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.<\/p>\n

The tech giant has invested $34.6 billion in\u00a0OpenAI<\/a>. It sold its stake in computer chip maker Nvidia last year to free up funds for more investments in AI and data centers.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed.<\/p>\n

Fortune Daily breaks the traditional barrier between audience and newsroom. The show transforms Fortune\u2019s trusted reporting into actionable, conversational, and entertaining insights for an emerging class of business leaders. Watch here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Worries about a bubble in\u00a0artificial intelligence\u00a0investments are absurd, SoftBank Group\u2019s CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday, deriding such doubts…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183526,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[157],"tags":[7067,682,2138],"class_list":["post-210863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-masayoshi-son","tag-bubble","tag-masayoshi-son","tag-softbank"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/117199185267547856","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}