On July 3, Caijing News (Editor Liu Rui) reported that about half a month ago,$SoftBank Group (9984.JP)$Founder Masayoshi Son made a bold statement at a shareholder meeting: he will invest in AI with all his might to create a "super artificial intelligence" era that will overturn human life.

And now, the market has also cast a vote of confidence in Son's "artificial intelligence ambition": on Wednesday of this week, SoftBank Group's stock price closed up 1.47%, setting a new historical closing high.

Did Son's AI dream receive market recognition?

On June 21, Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, made an inspiring and high-profile speech at a shareholder meeting, which once swept global financial media.

Son claimed that he would spare no effort to create a "super artificial intelligence era" and said, "It may succeed or it may fail miserably, but SoftBank has no choice but to try."

He also boasted, "Realizing super artificial intelligence is what I was born to do...in whatever form, I will pursue super artificial intelligence."

For a 67-year-old entrepreneur, it seems rare to make such a passionate and idealistic declaration. But in fact, Son's determination is not just talk, but has been put into action.

Currently, SoftBank's telecommunications division is actively investing in generative artificial intelligence, not only working with Microsoft and startup Perplexity AI Inc., but also building data centers equipped with Nvidia accelerators.

At the same time, SoftBank's chip business Arm Holdings Plc cannot be ignored. As a global chip design giant, Arm is working hard to position its architecture as an energy-efficient solution for running AI devices. Since its IPO in September last year, Arm's stock price has risen by a cumulative 169%.

Masayoshi Son has re-established his reputation.

It's been a tough few years for Masayoshi Son.

In 2021, SoftBank suffered billions of dollars in losses due to the Alibaba stock price collapse, as well as a series of failed investments by Son, including WeWork, Katerra Inc., OneWeb Ltd., and Zume Pizza Inc., among others. The company's stock price plummeted in 2021, and Son's reputation was also damaged.

But from the beginning of this year to now, SoftBank's stock price has risen by a cumulative 76.94%. This strong upward trend also marks Son's "comeback" and re-establishment of his reputation.

The key to this is that in the current wave of artificial intelligence, Masayoshi Son seized the opportunity.

SoftBank chose to establish close relationships with Nvidia and OpenAI, and recently announced successive investments in a number of AI start-ups, strengthening the company's position in the global race to build AI-related infrastructure. This move has once again won the market's confidence in SoftBank.

Tomoaki Kawasaki, senior analyst at Iwaicosmo Securities, said part of the reason SoftBank's stock price has risen is that the Nikkei 225 index's rebound is expected to help the investment company's profits. In addition, "as more investors consider it a semiconductor-related stock, the stock is once again getting a boost."

Editor / jayden