(Bloomberg) -- SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son declared the world's largest tech investment firm will go on the offensive soon, ending years of relative dormancy in startup investments.
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That's welcome news for the startup ecosystem, where even the valuations of profitable firms are crumbling as higher interest rates sap liquidity and spur caution among venture capital funds. Son spoke at length about his excitement about AI's potential at the conglomerate's annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday.
Prior to this week, the billionaire largely stayed away from the public eye. He stepped away from conducting SoftBank's earnings calls, even as the Vision Fund unit shouldered billions of dollars in losses over five straight quarters. New investments have ground to a virtual halt, as Son said he would focus on listing chip design unit Arm Ltd.
Thanks to its long hibernation, SoftBank now has enough cash on hand to invest again, Son said. Arm is at the beginning of an "explosive" period of growth, he said, adding that he's spent the last few years doubling the number of the unit's engineers.
"We will go on the counter-offensive soon," he said. "When your grandkids grow up to be our age, I believe that they will be living in such a reality where the computer is 10,000 times smarter than the sum of all human wisdom."
SoftBank's shares, which rose as much as 4.1% before the meeting began, pared some of their gains after Son's comments. Still, the stock has gained more than 30% in the June quarter, heading for their best quarterly performance in three years.
An early champion of investing in artificial intelligence, Son the previous day told shareholders at Japanese telecom unit SoftBank Corp. how happy he was about growing public awareness about AI's potential. SoftBank has poured billions of dollars into hundreds of companies and now sees some of those bets bearing fruit soon, Son said.
Prospects for Arm's initial public offering have brightened recently, buoyed by hype around generative AI and talks with potential anchor investors including Intel Corp. Arm is seeking to raise as much as $10 billion, Bloomberg News reported, and brokerages are revising up their SoftBank stock price targets.
--With assistance from Vlad Savov.
(Updates with CEO comments from the third paragraph)
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