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Tokyo, July 15, 2026 – SoftBank founder and chief executive Masayoshi Son has once again staked his reputation on a bold vision artificial intelligence will require an astonishing US$5 trillion annually by 2040, a scale of investment he insists is both necessary and sustainable.
Speaking at a recent corporate event, Son dismissed concerns that the current surge in AI spending represents a bubble, calling such speculation “absurd.”
Son’s forecast rests on the idea that AI will become the backbone of the global economy within the next two decades.
He predicts that by 2040, AI revenues will account for 20 percent of global GDP, justifying the trillions poured into infrastructure, research, and deployment.
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In his view, AI is not merely a technological upgrade but a civilizational shift, one that will reshape industries from finance to healthcare and beyond.
Central to his vision is the rise of AI agents autonomous systems capable of making decisions, communicating, and acting independently.
Son imagines a world populated by 100 trillion AI agents, each embedded in daily life, from personal assistants to industrial controllers.
This scale, he argues, will demand unprecedented computing power and energy resources.
Indeed, energy is one of the most pressing challenges in Son’s scenario.
He estimates that AI data centers could consume three terawatts of electricity, nearly double current global usage.
While acknowledging the interim reliance on natural gas, Son believes that nuclear fusion will eventually emerge as the dominant energy source, enabling sustainable growth for AI infrastructure.
SoftBank’s current strategy reflects this long term bet.
The company has already committed more than US$60 billion to OpenAI by 2026, alongside tens of billions invested in data centers and robotics firms.
These moves are designed to secure a foothold in the emerging AI ecosystem, positioning SoftBank as a central player in the race to build global AI capacity.
Son’s track record, however, is mixed. His early investments in Alibaba and Apple’s iPhone distribution in Japan proved spectacularly successful, cementing his reputation as a visionary investor.
Yet other bets, most notably WeWork, collapsed under the weight of overvaluation and poor execution.
Critics argue that his sweeping predictions risk repeating past mistakes, especially given the volatility of emerging technologies.
Still, Son remains undeterred. He insists that AI is not a speculative bubble but the defining force of the 21st century.
“Asking if AI is a bubble is absurd,” he said. “I don’t think people who ask that question know what AI is about.”
The implications of his forecast are profound.
If AI spending does reach US$5 trillion annually, it would rival the scale of global defense budgets and reshape capital markets.
It would also force governments and corporations to confront the environmental and social consequences of such rapid technological expansion.
For now, Son’s vision remains aspirational, but his conviction is clear: the future belongs to AI, and SoftBank intends to be at its center.
