Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank Group, stated on Friday that the company’s goal is to advance humankind by creating artificial superintelligence, which he predicted will be ten times more advanced than human intelligence.
At the company’s annual general meeting, Son addressed the shareholders, saying, “SoftBank (TYO:9984) Group has done many things until now that have all been a warm up for my great dream to realise artificial super intelligence.”
Son has earned his fame and fortune by speculating on the growth of cellphones and the internet, and he frequently extols the virtues of new technologies.
He announced at the conference on Friday that the team was now focusing all of its efforts on combining robotics and artificial intelligence for use in autonomous driving, as well as various forms of mass production and logistics.
Son stated that SoftBank would not be able to finance Son’s vision of AI robots alone, and that “immense capital” and pooling funds with partners would be necessary.
Since 2021, a large number of the tech businesses owned by the Vision Fund investment vehicles have failed, damaging Son’s reputation as a visionary investor. Several of his other forecasts, like the broad implementation of “internet of things” technology, have not come to pass.
However, since Arm, a British chip manufacturer and SoftBank subsidiary, went public in September of last year, investors have flocked to AI-related businesses, which has enhanced Son’s image.
The gap between SoftBank’s market capitalization and asset value has widened as Arm’s share price has risen.
Reuters was informed earlier in June by a source that Elliott Management, an activist investor, had amassed a stake in SoftBank valued at over $2 billion and demanded a $15 billion share buyback to increase the company’s share price.
Son stated that SoftBank had no intentions to buy back its own shares, but it was always willing to do so.
Additionally, he said he had thought about going private several times and left open the idea of taking SoftBank private should its share price drop considerably far below the group’s genuine value.
