SoftBank Group Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son
Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Softbank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said Wednesday that Japanese investment firms plan to shift from “defensive mode” to “offensive mode” and want to capitalize on the AI boom.
“Now is the time to go into offensive mode,” Mr. Son said at the annual shareholder meeting.
“Over the past few years, we have focused on: [on] ‘defense. ‘ Three years ago, we didn’t have much cash on hand. But we’re in defensive mode, so our cash reserves have increased to 5 trillion yen ($35.3 billion),” Son said.
“We are ready to move into offensive mode. I’m looking forward to it,” said Son.
The tech conglomerate, which makes venture capital investments through the Vision Fund, has had its ups and downs. It was in “defense mode” such as stopping new investment and reducing the investment ratio. Alibaba. The Vision Fund reported a record $32 billion loss in May.
“What I am most interested in and working on is the AI revolution. I believe that humans will be surpassed by computers and AI,” said Son.
“We would like to be [in] We are in a leading position in the AI revolution,” Son said.
SoftBank shares rose 2.63% in Wednesday morning trading.
Because the Vision Fund has invested in Chinese tech companies, it has been affected by the Chinese government’s crackdown on the country’s tech sector and the subsequent plunge in stock prices. SoftBank’s portfolio companies include ByteDance, didi grocery store, Coupang more.
SoftBank is gearing up for the IPO of UK-based chip designer Arm, which it acquired in 2016. Arm is filing for a U.S. listing, said SoftBank’s Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto, whose IPO process is “going smoothly.”
Artificial intelligence has seen explosive growth in recent months due to the virality of chatbot ChatGPT. ChatGPT has amazed researchers and the public with its ability to generate human-like responses to user prompts.
Son said Tuesday that he is a “heavy ChatGPT user” and that ChatGPT is “amazing.”
“Fate of Softbank” [are] Amir Anvarzadeh, Japanese stock market strategist at Asymmetry Advisors, said Wednesday on CNBC’s Street Sign Asia after SoftBank’s shareholder meeting.
“I can see why Nvidia wanted to buy Arm a few years ago, because obviously they wanted a monopoly on all architectures. Looking back on it now, it kind of makes sense.” The US chip maker has pulled out of a $40 billion deal to buy Arm.
“$30 billion is what we thought Arm would be worth. Given the context, I don’t think even $60 billion would be so insane,” Anvarzadeh said.
