Masayoshi Son has never been accused of thinking small. The SoftBank CEO, who rode the original internet wave to staggering heights before watching $59 billion in personal wealth evaporate during the dotcom crash, now claims the AI revolution dwarfs that era by a factor of 50.
SoftBank’s all-in AI bet
Son isn’t just talking. SoftBank now holds a $64.6 billion stake in OpenAI, representing roughly 13% ownership of the company behind ChatGPT. That makes it one of the largest single-company bets in venture capital history.
To fund this pivot, Son sold SoftBank’s entire position in Nvidia. The strategy extends beyond OpenAI. SoftBank has been pouring capital into AI infrastructure, data centers, superintelligence research, and robotics. Son has predicted that artificial superintelligence, or ASI, could arrive within a decade and be “10,000 times smarter” than humans.
The market seems to agree with his thesis, at least for now. SoftBank shares surged nearly 30% in just two trading days in May 2026, eventually climbing 46% over five days. That rally pushed SoftBank past Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable company.
