SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, who sold entire stake in Nvidia to fund OpenAI deal, says: I think OpenAI will be ...

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is very confident about the bank’s investment in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The CEO of the investment bank that recently overtook Toyota to become the country’s most valuable company, a position held by the automaker for 20 years, said that he believes OpenAI “will be very successful” as the artificial intelligence (AI) company reportedly explores a future public listing. The comments from the largest Japanese investment bank came after it exited its Nvidia stake as part of a broader strategy to back OpenAI and AI infrastructure projects last year.Speaking to CNBC in Paris, Son addressed concerns about SoftBank’s exposure to OpenAI. He said that he remains confident in the startup’s prospects. According to him, OpenAI accounts for just over 20% of SoftBank’s net asset value, while chip design company Arm remains the group's largest holding, contributing more than 50%.Earlier this year, SoftBank partnered with OpenAI on the Stargate project, a joint venture focused on developing AI infrastructure in the US. Son’s comments came shortly after SoftBank announced a €75 billion ($87 billion) investment plan to develop AI infrastructure in France. The project includes building 5 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity and marks the company's largest AI infrastructure commitment in Europe to date.During the interview, Son claimed the ongoing AI revolution can be much bigger than the internet boom of the 90s and 2000s. “I think this is like more than 10x, probably 50x bigger than dot-com,” he said while detailing how the company would invest in AI infrastructure across multiple locations.Son, using past tech revolutions as an example, said that boom-and-bust cycles are part of the innovation system. He especially referred to the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the dot-com Crash as cases of temporary disruptions that did not halt long-term technological advancements.“This is the biggest revolution of technology and realisation that mankind has ever experienced, so this is just like the beginning of the internet,” Son said. Referencing historical market downturns, he added: “There’s always a correction.”“Now, if you look at the history, electronics and motorisation crashed in 1929, but went up for many, many years, for the next 100 years after that… so there may be some correction, but that will be the best investment opportunity to me,” Son explained.As part of the French expansion, SoftBank plans to build 3.1 gigawatts of AI data centre capacity in the Hauts-de-France region by 2031, including facilities in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain.During a press briefing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Son said the company intends to leverage its experience from large-scale projects in the United States to support the European initiative.“It’s a massive size of investment coming. We are doing that in the US already, we are expanding a lot in the U.S., so we have the momentum, which we can make France the center of Europe, and Europe needs this kind of AI technology,” Son said.Son noted that the investment would primarily be financed through project financing rather than SoftBank’s own capital. The company is also partnering with Schneider Electric to establish a large-scale industrial production hub in Dunkirk as part of the broader AI infrastructure buildout.