After years of roller-coaster investments, Masayoshi Son, SoftBank’s founder and CEO, is steering his tech empire into a new era driven by artificial intelligence and chipmaking. Under his leadership, SoftBank has returned to profitability, posting its first full-year net profit of around $7.8 billion by March 2025. That historic turnaround was fueled by strong returns from stakes in Alibaba and T-Mobile, and a rebounding chip designer, Arm.
Son is now doubling down. He’s plotting a bold move toward AI infrastructure, proposing what could become one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth-style funds—backed by the U.S. and Japan—to channel up to $300 billion into future-facing tech investments. At the same time, SoftBank is retooling its investment strategy toward in-house chip production. It’s reportedly preparing a $100 billion AI chip venture, and is already in talks to acquire Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion to boost its hardware capabilities.
At the heart of Son’s vision lies the billion-dollar Stargate initiative—a massive AI infrastructure project launched alongside OpenAI and Oracle. SoftBank plans to commit billions annually, and borrow heavily to fund up to $500 billion over the next several years. Despite the high stakes and mounting debt, Son’s board and investors appear to be backing his conviction that AI and semiconductors are the future.
Son has also begun offloading legacy Vision Fund assets, trimming stakes in companies like DoorDash and Coupang. The pivot reflects his determination to move away from speculative internet bets and toward strategic, hardware-centric AI plays. Whether through sovereign-style funding, chip acquisitions, or mega-infrastructure projects, Masayoshi Son is betting big—again—that SoftBank can lead the next wave of tech transformation.
