SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Becomes Asia’s Richest Person Amid AI Boom

Amid the artificial intelligence craze, SoftBank Group’s Masayoshi Son has become Asia’s richest man. Optimism has pushed the Tokyo-listed investment giant’s shares to a record high, making it Japan’s most valuable company on Monday, surpassing automaker Toyota Motor Corp.

Forbes estimates the 68-year-old tycoon now has a net worth of $97 billion, mostly from his stake in SoftBank. He has become Asia’s richest man, surpassing Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, whose wealth reaches $90 billion, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaire rankings.

As Son’s artificial intelligence-related investments have boosted market sentiment, SoftBank’s stock price has risen by more than 80%, and its current market value has reached $298 billion. The tycoon told CNBC on Monday that the opportunities in the artificial intelligence revolution could be 50 times greater than in the internet era.

“I think this is 10 or even 50 times bigger than Internet companies,” Son said. The day before, he announced an investment of up to 75 billion euros ($87 billion) in artificial intelligence infrastructure such as data centers across France.

As demand for artificial intelligence is expected to increase further, SoftBank’s portfolio companies have also risen sharply, boosting the parent company’s stock price. The main catalyst for the rally is Nasdaq-listed chipmaker Arm Holdings, in which the Japanese conglomerate owns nearly 90%, said Dan Baker, senior equity analyst at research firm Morningstar.

The British company, whose shares have risen more than 250% this year, forecast on Tuesday that it could hit its $15 billion chip sales target ahead of schedule. In March, when Arm launched its first in-house chips, marking a shift from only licensing chip-making technology, the company also predicted it would be selling that many in-house chips in about five years. According to Arm’s own forecast, total annual revenue will reach $25 billion by then, a more than six-fold increase from 2025 revenue.

Meanwhile, investors are betting that OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in which SoftBank has invested more than $30 billion, could be valued even higher. Led by billionaire Sam Altman, OpenAI raised $122 billion from investors including Amazon, Nvidia and Japanese conglomerates and was valued at $852 billion at the end of March.

The U.S. artificial intelligence giant may now be in a IPO arms race with fast-growing rival Anthropic as both seek to use first-mover advantage to attract more capital. SoftBank has pledged to invest at least another $20 billion in OpenAI by October and will benefit if the value of the US giant rises further. Hironori Akizawa, a senior fund manager at Tokio Marine Asset Management in Tokyo, said OpenAI could be valued at about $1 trillion in its initial public offering amid a market frenzy for large offerings such as the impending IPO of billionaire Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which is reportedly seeking to raise $75 billion.

Despite his commitment to artificial intelligence, Son has so far managed to maintain financial discipline. SoftBank’s leverage ratio, measured as the ratio of loans to the value of assets, fell to 17% from 18% in the fiscal fourth quarter, according to a May research note from Morningstar. The company’s self-imposed leverage limit is 25%, and its huge borrowings once caused major concerns in the market.

But it won’t be entirely smooth sailing, Deutsche Bank analyst Peter Milliken warned in a research note on Tuesday. OpenAI faces stiff competition from Anthropic, which has surpassed OpenAI in valuation to $965 billion after a funding round in May. Cheaper open source AI models are also growing in popularity globally, which could hurt OpenAI’s sales growth.

“[SoftBank’s] “This has been a great run, based largely on shrewd investing and partly on a bull market that is increasingly showing signs of entering a frenzy,” the analyst wrote. “In our view, analysts and investors have become focused on short-term momentum and less interested or able to chart a longer-term trajectory through detailed assumptions.”