Masayoshi Son, chair of SoftBank Group, who is aggressively investing in artificial intelligence (AI), pushed back directly against talk of an AI bubble. He dismissed it, saying, "It is foolish to even ask whether AI is a bubble."
According to the Nikkei, Son expressed strong conviction about the impact AI and physical AI will have on the global economy at the Future Investment Initiative (FII), an international finance conference held in Tokyo on the 1st.
He said, "Within the next 10 years, AI will account for 10% of the world's gross domestic product (GDP)," adding, "In monetary terms, it will reach $20 trillion per year (about 2,900 quadrillion won)." He went on to say, "Even if $10 trillion is invested in the AI industry over 10 years, it could be structured so that the investment is recouped in half a year."
Regarding SoftBank's recent sale of all its Nvidia shares, he said, "In fact, I did not want to sell even a single share, but I had no choice in order to invest in other AI corporations such as OpenAI." Describing it as "doing something against one's will," he still showed a strong resolve to invest in AI.
Son also said the arrival of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is something no one can stop, adding, "Japan is conservative and too slow, which is a big problem."