SoftBank CEO says he wants to be an early investor in Openai

Soft Silver CEO Masayoshi’s son said Friday that the Japanese tech giant hopes to realize its vision for “artificial super-intelligence” and is therefore “all” on Openai.

This year, Japan’s multinational group has been increasing its presence in Openai and participate In joint ventures, such as the $500 billion Stargate project.

SoftBank has now “all” in AI companies, although the company’s total planned investment reaches about ¥4.8 trillion ($33.2 billion), even though it is unheld and unprofitable, according to the son.

“I think it will be a list of OpenAI in the end and think, I think it will be the most valuable company in the world,” the son said. However, he added that “a courageous investment is needed” in such a company.

It turns out that my son has long believed this belief. During the shareholders’ meeting, he revealed that before 2019, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman asked him if SoftBank would invest $10 billion in the company.

“I said, yes, I would…I’m serious because I have the financial resources because of the performance of the Vision Fund. But obviously, Sam talked to other potential investors and they ended up choosing Microsoft.”

Microsoft eventually concluded the deal, which made it an exclusive provider of OpenAI research, products and programming interfaces for developers. However, Microsoft Lost state As the exclusive cloud provider for Openai at the beginning of this year.

Now this relationship seems to be on the rock’s foothold. According to recent reports Microsoft has not approved OpenAI restructuring plan This will turn it into a more conventional for-profit company.

Speaking about the report, the son suggested that Ultraman should choose SoftBank over Microsoft as its initial partner, although he noted that SoftBank was smaller at the time and Microsoft had its global supply chain, technical talent and brand value.

SoftBank used to have It can reduce It’s part of its $30 billion investment Openai’s latest funding round in March If it is not reorganized into a for-profit entity by December 31, it will be $20 billion.

But on Friday, his son said his belief in Openai will only become stronger, and SoftBank will continue to deepen its relationship with the company, regardless of what happened with Microsoft.

Part of his son’s belief in Openai stems from his desire to become the center of SoftBank’s “artificial super-wisdom”. describe As AI, it is 10,000 times smarter than humans.

The son said Friday that he hopes SoftBank will become the largest platform provider for the ASI and become an “industry organizer in the era of artificial super-intelligence.”

He added that SoftBank’s partnership with OpenAI and the British semiconductor company ARM, SoftBank’s acquisition in 2016, is crucial to these plans.

SoftBank is becoming increasingly aggressive in AI-related investments, including Acquisition of American chip designer Ampere for $6.5 billion Earlier this year.

Bloomberg News Report Last week, he cites people familiar with the matter, and he is also considering building a $1 trillion industrial complex in the United States to develop AI.