SoftBank to shift from ‘defense mode’ to ‘offense mode,’ says CEO Masayoshi Son

SoftBank Group chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son on Wednesday stated that the Japanese funding agency plans to shift from “defense mode” to “offense mode” and desires to capitalize on the AI increase.

“Now, the time has come to shift to offense mode,” Son stated throughout a shareholders’ annual basic assembly.

“In the past few years, we focused on being [on] ‘defense.’ Three years ago, we didn’t have a lot of cash on hand. But because we have been in defense mode, we have built our cash on hand to five trillion yen ($35.3 billion),” Son stated.

“We are ready to shift to offense mode. I am excited about that,” stated Son.

The tech conglomerate, which engages in enterprise capital investing via its Vision Fund, has had its fair proportion of ups and downs. It was in “defense mode” because it halted new investments and trimmed its stake in Alibaba. In May, the Vision Fund reported a document $32 billion loss.

“What I am interested in most, what I am working on most, is the AI revolution. I believe that mankind is going to be exceeded by computer or AI,” stated Son.

“We would like to be [in] the leading position for the AI revolution,” stated Son.

SoftBank shares rose 2.63% in Wednesday morning commerce.

The Vision Fund has invested in Chinese tech companies and subsequently was hit by Beijing’s crackdown on the nation’s tech sector and the following plunge in share costs. SoftBank’s portfolio corporations embody ByteDance, DiDi Grocery, Coupang and extra.

SoftBank is gearing up for the IPO of Arm, the U.Ok.-based chip design agency it acquired in 2016. Arm filed for the itemizing within the U.S. SoftBank’s CFO Yoshimitsu Goto stated the IPO course of is “going smoothly.”

Artificial intelligence has seen explosive progress in latest months, fueled by chatbot ChatGPT’s virality. ChatGPT has amazed researchers and most of the people with its potential to generate humanlike responses to customers’ prompts.

Son stated on Tuesday that he’s “a heavy user of ChatGPT” and that ChatGPT is “amazing.”

“The fortunes of SoftBank [are] looking to turn,” stated Amir Anvarzadeh, Japan fairness market strategist at Asymmetric Advisors on CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” Wednesday after SoftBank’s shareholders’ assembly.

“You can see why Nvidia wanted to buy Arm a few years back because obviously, they wanted all of the architecture to themselves. Now it kind of makes sense, looking back.” The U.S. chip maker had dropped out of the $40 billion deal to amass Arm.

“$30 billion is what we thought could be what Arm is worth. I reckon now, even $60 billion, might not seem too insane, given the backdrop,” stated Anvarzadeh.