{"id":164244,"date":"2025-12-02T11:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164244\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T11:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T11:51:08","slug":"when-chatgpt-made-japans-second-richest-man-softbank-ceo-masayoshi-son-cry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/164244\/","title":{"rendered":"When ChatGPT made Japan’s second-richest man Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son ‘cry’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"When Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, has revealed that the company\u2019s decision to sell its substantial stake in Nvidia was a painful, though necessary, step taken to fund its aggressive new investments in artificial intelligence (AI), including a major commitment to OpenAI<\/a>. Addressing the November disclosure that SoftBank had completely unloaded its shares worth $5.83 billion in the world\u2019s most valuable chipmaker, Son expressed deep regret, figuratively admitting he \u2018cried\u2019 when he sold shares of the biggest tech company in terms of market cap.\u201cI don\u2019t want to sell a single share. I just had more need for money to invest in OpenAI and other projects,\u201d Son told attendees at the FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo on Monday (December 2). \u201cI was crying to sell Nvidia shares,\u201d Japan\u2019s second richest man added.<\/p>\n

Son bets on the AI future, says no AI bubble<\/p>\n

Son\u2019s comments clarified that SoftBank needed immediate capital and selling was driven by a string of expansive AI projects. These projects include construction of a massive Stargate data centre in partnership with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. (commonly known as Foxconn), the acquisition of US chip designer Ampere Computing, and accelerated plans to increase investment in OpenAI by the end of the year.The Japanese tech executive also dismissed that the current surge in AI spending represents an investment bubble.\u201cPeople who talk about a bubble around AI investment are not smart enough,\u201d the 68-year-old CEO highlighted. Son argued that if AI eventually captures even 10% of global gross domestic product (GDP) over the long term, this return would easily justify trillions of dollars in cumulative spending. \u201cWhere is the bubble?\u201d he questioned.<\/p>\n

When Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang made fun of Softbank founder<\/p>\n

The \u2018cry\u2019 comment brought back a year-old memory about the conversation between Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Son. During Huang’s visit to Japan last November, he publicly \u2018teased\u2019 Son over his past investment timing.Huang once introduced Son on stage by praising him as the \u201conly entrepreneur, only innovator in the world that has selected the winner and partnered with the winner in every single generation,\u201d citing his crucial roles in introducing giants like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs to Japan and backing Alibaba. Huang then delivered the punchline: \u201cYou maybe many of you probably don’t know this, but at one point, Masa was the largest shareholder of Nvidia.\u201dThis was a mention of the massive, missed returns by Son, who then playfully rested his head on Huang’s shoulder as if weeping. Huang responded with mock sympathy, \u201cIt’s okay. We can cry. We can cry together. Could you imagine? If today, you are the largest shareholder. Oh, my God.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masayoshi Son, SoftBank Group CEO, has revealed that the company\u2019s decision to sell its substantial stake in Nvidia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[365,363,364,52655,111,139,1042,69,620,13867,89738,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-164244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-masayoshi-son","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nvidia","15":"tag-nz","16":"tag-openai","17":"tag-softbank","18":"tag-softbank-group","19":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}