Masayoshi Son

SoftBank will buy ABB's robotics division for $5.4 billion, aiming to grow its AI and automation business; the deal is expected to close by mid- to late-2026, pending approvals

SoftBank will cut nearly 20 per cent of Vision Fund staff worldwide as it shifts focus to AI projects like the $500 billion Stargate plan, investing heavily in chips, data centres and OpenAI

SoftBank shares soared to a record after Oracle revealed nearly $500 billion in future contracts, boosted by OpenAI, raising optimism about the company's AI-driven growth prospects

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son signals leadership shift, unveils bold AI plans; firm has invested over $10 billion in Indian startups like Paytm, Swiggy, Ola Electric, and FirstCry

The Japanese billionaire is looking at a technique called project financing that is sometimes linked with oil and gas projects, according to people familiar with the matter

Japanese technology giant SoftBank Group and OpenAI stepped up their AI partnership Monday, setting up a 50-50 held company called SB OpenAI Japan. SoftBank Chief Masayoshi Son and OpenAI Chief Sam Altman appeared at an event in Tokyo, talking up their collaboration and inviting Japanese companies to join. Son, holding a shiny blue crystal ball as a symbolic prop, said its AI service Cristal could be used by companies for planning, marketing, emails and figuring out old source codes. Cristal will first roll out in Son's own SoftBank Group companies, which include Arm, a semiconductor and software company, and PayPay, an electronic payment service. SoftBank said it plans to spend $3 billion a year to integrate Cristal across its companies. This will be super-intelligence for the company. I'm so excited, Son told reporters and other participants at the Transforming Business through AI event. Altman talked about the just announced deep research, which allows ChatGPT to carry out more

The development follows concerns sparked by Chinese AI startup DeepSeek, which recently introduced a highly advanced chatbot at a significantly lower cost than its American rivals, unsettling the mark

Masayoshi Son, who has been a vocal advocate for AI's transformative potential, previously predicted that AI could contribute up to 5% of global economic output by 2035

SoftBank said that over the next year it would buy back up to 6.8% of its own shares, worth as much as 500 billion yen

After a year of quiet, Japanese investor returns to investing with $75-125 million AI push

The pace of increase in his wealth puts the Japanese billionaire in the top 30 gainers among the world's 500 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index

He also introduced the idea of "Artificial Super Intelligence" at the conference which he claimed would be realised in 20 years and would surpass human intelligence by a factor of 10,000

as he and other top executives met with bankers to plot this week's initial public offering for Arm Holdings Plc, the focus was making sure the sale would go off without a hitch

The billionaire is ending years of dormancy after his Vision Fund

His unrealized losses widened by about $130 million from three months before, with most of the deficit linked to the Latin America fund

Billionaire investor and SoftBank Group Founder Masayoshi Son on Tuesday met founders and CEOs of some prominent startups during his day-long visit to the national capital, according to sources. Masayoshi Son, 65, also attended Oyo Founder Ritesh Agarwal's wedding festivities in the capital. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Founder and CEO of digital payments platform Paytm, tweeted a photo of himself and the investor while another picture posted by him had various founders in it, including Lenskart CEO Peyush Bansal. "Ultimate joy today, seeing Masa smiling, happy and enjoying his India trip. Everyone of us had tons of gratitude for his belief and support given to our startups," Sharma tweeted. Specific details about Masayoshi Son's India visit were not immediately available, and a message sent to SoftBank Group did not elicit any response. SoftBank has been a prominent and prolific investor in the Indian startup ecosystem, pumping in an estimated USD 15 billion over the years. Some of the

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

Those meeting the SoftBank boss in New Delhi will have to go through RT-PCR tests

The founder and chief executive of the world's largest tech investor bade farewell in November to the earnings presentations he's led for decades

Every quarter Masayoshi Son is forced to give metrics he doesn't believe capture the value of his firm. "We are an investment company, we're not engaged in operations," he said in August 2020