AI: Masa's Back!
...in AI with gusto
Paraphrasing the classic Eminem song, Guess Who’s Back:
“Guess who's back, back again?
Masa's back, tell a friend
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?
Guess who's back? Guess who's back?
Guess who's back?
(Da-da-da, da, da, da, da, da, da)
(Da-da-da, da, da, da, da)”
A few financial setbacks (WeWork, et al), can’t hold him back. Softbank’s Masa Son is back with his exuberent optimism for technology that’s deep in his DNA, and served him well for over three decades, and multiple technology waves. This time he’s back for the AI Tech Wave with gusto, with ‘artificial general intelligence, aka AGI as the end goal.
As Bloomberg reports in “Masayoshi Son Seeks to Build a $100 Billion AI Chip Venture”
“SoftBank has $41 billion cash pile and finances helped by Arm”
“Undertaking code-named Izanagi after Japanese god of creation”
“SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son is seeking as much as $100 billion to bankroll a chip venture to compete with Nvidia Corp. and supply semiconductors essential for AI, according to people with knowledge of the matter.”
“Code-named Izanagi, the project marks the billionaire’s next big endeavor as SoftBank sharply curtails startup investments. Son envisions creating a company that can complement chip design unit Arm Holdings Plc and allow the billionaire to build an AI chip powerhouse, said the people, who requested anonymity because the discussions remain private. In one scenario being considered, SoftBank would provide $30 billion, with $70 billion possibly coming from institutions in the Middle East, one of the people said.”
“If he succeeds, the chip project will mark one of the largest investments in the AI arena since the advent of ChatGPT, dwarfing Microsoft Corp.’s recent bet on OpenAI of more than $10 billion. Son named the project after Izanagi, the Japanese god of creation and life, partly because it includes the initials for artificial general intelligence, the people said. Son has for years foretold the coming of AGI in his presentations, saying that a world filled with machines that are smarter than humans will be safer, healthier and happier.”
That’s Masa Son in a nutshell. Hasn’t changed in the decades since I had the opportunity to work with him on Yahoo! in the 1990s.
Again, as with his successful investment in the hardware and networking parts of the tech stack (Arm, Softbank telecom and many others), he’s focusing on the AI infrastructure part of the tech stack in the AI Tech Wave. Boxes 1 and 2 to start with for now.
And he will of course likely focus on opportunities further up the tech stack. He’s already rumored to be working on AI smart agent and device technologies with OpenAI’s Sam Altman and ex-Apple uber-designer Jony Ive (Box 6).
And of course Sam Altman has been public about his and OpenAI’s interest in raising up to $7 trillion for AI chips and infrastructure, a topic I’ve discussed at length.
But Masa is Masa, and he is thinking big again this time around in AI. Expect him to be fully involved in most of the boxes of the tech stack above, including AI and robotics.
But he’s diving in deep on the chips for now.
He’s always back when the ‘Times, they are A-Changin’, as I wrote about earlier.
He’s always been about the journey,, not the desitnation. We’ll see how it goes. Stay tuned.
(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)