SoftBank’s ASI Ambition: Masayoshi Son Charts a New Course

07/09/2025, 09:16 AM 5 Min

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SoftBank’s ASI Ambition: Masayoshi Son Charts a New Course On June 27, at SoftBank Group’s 45th Annual Shareholders’ Meeting, CEO Masayoshi Son delivered a landmark speech outlining the company’s future. Son declared that SoftBank’s new core mission is to become the world’s leading platform builder in the ASI (Artificial Super Intelligence) era. He detailed the origins of this strategy, SoftBank’s core assets, the roadmap, and the capital commitments.

Strategic Pillars: Arm and OpenAI

Son identified two main pillars for this vision: Arm and OpenAI. Arm will be central to SoftBank’s AI strategy, while SoftBank plans to increase its stake in OpenAI, with total investments (completed and planned for this year) reaching 4.8 trillion yen. Son emphasized that such a large investment in a private, loss-making company is unprecedented, but he is fully committed to ASI.

2024 Business Overview

Before Son’s speech, a video summarized SoftBank’s FY2024 performance. The company’s philosophy, “Information Revolution—Happiness for Everyone,” guided aggressive global strategies to accelerate AGI and ASI. The report highlighted several key initiatives. In January 2025, SoftBank launched the “Stargate” project with OpenAI and Oracle to build AI infrastructure in the US. In February, SoftBank and OpenAI announced a partnership to co-develop and sell enterprise AI (“Crystal Intelligence”) and agreed to form a joint venture. SoftBank also acquired UK-based Graphcore and US-based Ampere Computing, strengthening its AI semiconductor capabilities, and established SB Tempus to advance personalized healthcare using AI.

Financially, FY2024 sales rose 7.2% to 7.24 trillion yen, with net profit reaching 1.15 trillion yen—the first profit in four years. The annual dividend was 44 yen per share, with FY2025 expected to match.

Arm: The AI Computing Platform

Arm is positioned as the “AI computing platform driving global change and innovation.” Its licensing revenue hit record highs, with sales up 25.3% year-on-year to $4 billion. Arm now dominates about 99% of the smartphone chip market and has made significant inroads into cloud data centers, with Arm-based chips surpassing 50% market share in major data centers. Crowds of Robots

Vision Fund and Investment Performance

The Vision Fund continues to focus on high-growth AI companies, achieving 434.9 billion yen in investment gains in FY2024. Since inception, Vision Fund I has earned $23.4 billion, while Vision Fund II has posted a $22.9 billion loss. Direct investments, especially in Alibaba, T-Mobile, and Deutsche Telekom, contributed to a total investment gain of 3.41 trillion yen.

Domestic Business and AI Infrastructure

SoftBank’s domestic telecom business saw an 8.5% profit increase, driven by growth across all segments and PayPay’s turnaround. The division is building next-generation AI data centers and advancing the AI-RAN project to support an “AI-coexistent” society.

Financial Discipline

SoftBank doubled its growth investments to $7.9 billion in FY2024 and has completed 61% of a 500 billion yen share buyback. The loan-to-value ratio remains below 25%, and liquidity covers two years of bond repayments.

Son’s Personal Journey and ASI Vision

Son shared a formative story from age 17, when a magazine photo of a microcomputer chip convinced him that superintelligence would one day surpass human intellect. This conviction shaped his life and SoftBank’s mission: to pursue ASI as the ultimate goal of the information revolution.

Becoming the World’s Leading ASI Platform

Son reviewed SoftBank’s evolution—from PC software distribution to investments in Yahoo, Alibaba, the Vision Fund, and the acquisition of Arm. Despite skepticism, SoftBank’s net asset value now stands at 31 trillion yen. Son declared that all past achievements were preparation for building the world’s top ASI platform, aiming not just to participate but to lead.

He explained the concept of a “platform builder” using economic models. Unlike diminishing-return businesses, platform businesses like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple grow stronger over time. SoftBank aspires to be the “house” in the ASI world, leveraging its accumulated capital, user base, and global reach. Crowds of Robots

Arm and OpenAI: The Twin Engines

Arm is described as the “world’s absolute No.1” asset, controlling nearly all smartphone chips and now half of cloud data center chips. All future Arm designs will integrate AI at their core, making Arm the foundation of SoftBank’s ASI ecosystem.

OpenAI, with about 80% market share in generative AI and over 500 million weekly active users on ChatGPT, is the other pillar. Son believes OpenAI’s intelligence now surpasses 99.9% of humans and is evolving from information retrieval to reasoning and autonomous action. The “Crystal Intelligence” project will unify SoftBank’s 2,500 internal systems into a single superintelligent entity, setting a benchmark for enterprise AI adoption.

Commitment and Outlook

Son reaffirmed his determination to make SoftBank the world’s No.1 ASI platform provider within the next decade. He pledged to devote his remaining years to this mission, declaring that “being No.1” is in his nature.

Q&A Highlights

During the Q&A, Son addressed succession, stating that future leaders will emerge from within SoftBank’s management, not from external hires. He sees SoftBank’s undervaluation as a buying opportunity, but believes true value will come from multiplying the company’s worth through ASI leadership. Son recounted offering $10 billion to OpenAI before Microsoft’s investment, but remains committed to deepening ties. He noted that the most advanced AI models are still developed in the US and that true winners will be those who leverage the latest models.

Son stressed the need for robust, redundant AI infrastructure and urged Japanese society to embrace AI development. The Stargate project will use phased, project-based financing, leveraging OpenAI’s explosive revenue growth as credit support. SoftBank aims to deploy 100 AI agents per employee by December, becoming the world’s top enterprise user of AI agents and reinforcing its partnership with OpenAI.

SoftBank’s new chapter is defined by a singular, audacious goal: to lead the world into the ASI era, powered by Arm, OpenAI, and an unwavering belief in the future of superintelligence.