Masayoshi Son, the founder of SoftBank Group, stated at the annual corporate conference in Tokyo that the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution is an inevitable historical transformation, refuting claims of an 'AI bubble.' He believes that those who doubt AI lack an understanding of its essence. Son predicts that by 2040, AI development will require $5 trillion in annual investment, a cost that will be negligible if AI revenue accounts for 20% of global GDP. He envisioned a society in 2040 where 100 trillion AI agents will autonomously make decisions, execute tasks, and communicate, shifting humanity from a self-centered world to an agent-centered one. To support AI development, Son expects global AI data center power demand to reach 3 terawatts by 2040, initially relying on natural gas power generation and transitioning to nuclear fusion in the long term. SoftBank is positioning itself in the AI sector through massive investments, including over $60 billion in OpenAI, the acquisition of chip company Ampere Computing, the launch of the $500 billion Stargate supercomputing project in the U.S. in partnership with OpenAI and Oracle, and a €75 billion investment in AI data centers in France.
