Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son said physical artificial intelligence and robotics are the next trillion-dollar company opportunity, speaking on Monday after Softbank unveiled plans on Sunday for a 75 billion ($87 billion) investment in AI infrastructure in France.
Softbank has deployed capital across the technology stack, with landmark investments in Alibaba, OpenAI and ARM that the company said have transformed the Japanese multinational into an AI platform and helped it overtake Toyota to become Japan's most valuable company.
Son named both humanoid and industrial robotics as the sectors that excite him most, rejected the idea of an AI bubble and said "AI is potentially '50x bigger' than the dot.com boom", adding the technological shift could play out over 50 to 100 years, he told CNBC.
Softbank said the France investment package includes building 5 GW of AI data-center capacity as part of the 75 billion ($87 billion) commitment.
