Masayoshi Son: AI to Cost $5 Trillion Annually by 2040
At SoftBank’s annual conference in Tokyo, Masayoshi Son put a bold figure on the table regarding artificial intelligence (AI) development. He stated that by 2040, building AI will cost approximately $5 trillion annually, or 800 trillion yen, without revealing his calculations.
Justification and Bubble Talk
Son justified this claim by referring to AI’s potential impact on global GDP. He argued that if AI revenue reaches 20% of global GDP in 2040, spending 800 trillion yen annually would be a negligible fraction of it. He dismissed the notion of AI being a bubble, stating that those who ask such questions "do not understand what AI is about."
SoftBank’s Investment Strategy
This comes as Son has consistently defended his investment in OpenAI, which is set to surpass $60 billion by the end of 2026. SoftBank’s extensive program involves investing in data centers and robotics companies, aiming to position itself as a core platform for the AI era.
The Future Vision
Son envisions a future where AI data centers will require 3 terawatts of power by 2040, approximately 1.8 times the current global total. He expresses optimism about nuclear fusion as a cleaner and cheaper energy source, despite it not yet being commercially viable.
He further speculates that by 2040, 100 trillion AI agents will operate autonomously, making decisions and communicating with each other without human intervention, marking a shift from a human-centric world to an agent-centric one.