SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son says AI revolution is 50x bigger than dotcom boom

Masayoshi Son has never been accused of thinking small. The SoftBank CEO, who rode the original internet wave to staggering heights before watching $59 billion in personal wealth evaporate during the dotcom crash, now claims the AI revolution dwarfs that era by a factor of 50.

SoftBank’s all-in AI bet

Son isn’t just talking. SoftBank now holds a $64.6 billion stake in OpenAI, representing roughly 13% ownership of the company behind ChatGPT. That makes it one of the largest single-company bets in venture capital history.

To fund this pivot, Son sold SoftBank’s entire position in Nvidia. The strategy extends beyond OpenAI. SoftBank has been pouring capital into AI infrastructure, data centers, superintelligence research, and robotics. Son has predicted that artificial superintelligence, or ASI, could arrive within a decade and be “10,000 times smarter” than humans.

The market seems to agree with his thesis, at least for now. SoftBank shares surged nearly 30% in just two trading days in May 2026, eventually climbing 46% over five days. That rally pushed SoftBank past Toyota to become Japan’s most valuable company.

Son’s personal net worth has now crossed $50 billion. For context, that’s roughly where he was before the dotcom implosion wiped him out two decades ago.

The ghost of dotcom past

Son was an early backer of Yahoo and other internet pioneers in the late 1990s. He briefly held the title of the world’s richest person before the crash. His loss of more than $59 billion marked the largest personal wealth decline recorded at that time.

What this means for investors

The decision to dump Nvidia in favor of a direct OpenAI stake tells you something about where Son sees the value chain heading. SoftBank’s Vision Fund lost tens of billions during its first iteration, backing companies like WeWork that turned out to be more vision than fund.

Investors watching this space should pay close attention to whether OpenAI can sustain its growth trajectory as competition from Google, Anthropic, Meta, and others intensifies. A $64.6 billion bet on a single AI company is either the trade of the century or a concentration risk that would make any portfolio manager wince.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.