SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son said the world’s largest tech investor will go on the offensive soon, ending more than a year of relative dormancy in startup investments.
“We will go on the counteroffensive soon,” Son said at the conglomerate’s annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday. “AI is bringing about explosive change.”
An early champion of investing in artificial intelligence, Son the previous day told shareholders at Japanese telecom unit SoftBank Corp. how happy he was about growing public awareness about AI’s potential. SoftBank has poured billions of dollars into hundreds of companies, and the world’s largest tech investor now sees some of those bets bearing fruit, Son said.
Prior to this week, the billionaire largely stayed away from the public eye. He stepped away from conducting SoftBank’s earnings calls, while plunging tech valuations forced the Vision Fund unit to shoulder billions of dollars in losses for five straight quarters. New investments have ground to a virtual halt, and Son said he would focus on listing chip design unit Arm Ltd.
Prospects for the chip design unit’s initial public offering have brightened recently, buoyed by hype around generative AI and talks with potential anchor investors including Intel Corp. Arm is seeking to raise as much as $10 billion, Bloomberg News reported, and brokerages are revising up their SoftBank stock price targets. The company’s shares have gained more than 30% so far in the June quarter, heading for their best quarterly performance in three years.
