SoftBank's Masayoshi Son sees India's potential to become big player in chip design

Japan's SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son sees India's potential to emerge as a big player in chip design due to geopolitical reasons and asked founders of his portfolio companies in the country to work on artificial intelligence with a 10-year perspective, according to sources.

During his two-day visit to India, Son met Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Day 1 in Mumbai and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the second day in the national capital.

The billionaire CEO met founders of SoftBank's portfolio companies, including Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Meesho CEO Vidit Aatrey, OYO CEO Ritesh Agarwal, Ola Consumer and Ola Electric CEO Bhavish Aggarwal, Flipart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, and Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal, among others, on second day of his visit.

"During meeting with the founders, Son said India's engineering talent is the biggest in the world. He said that due to geopolitical de-coupling, India could be a big player in chip design. He mentioned SoftBank has invested USD 15 billion in the last 10 years and SoftBank's investments in India could exceed that," a source who was part of the meeting said.

The SoftBank Group founder also said that chip designing will be the heartbeat of the AI economy.

During discussions with founders, Son emphasised the development of business around artificial intelligence.

He said founders will have to think in an exponential manner not in a linear way as AI is not a linear thought process.

Son said AI would have a capex of $9-10 trillion globally and founders need to look at AI from a 10-year perspective.

Sources said that Son told founders that making a 2-3 year AI plan would be a recipe for failure.

He also met some founders individually, including InMobi's founder and CEO Naveen Tewari, to discuss further potential collaborations in consumer tech and AI.

Ola's Bhavish Aggarwal took to the micro-blogging site X to share the news.

"Always amazing to meet @masason! Such an energising discussion on AI, AGI, Energy and India. We will make the future here in India together," he wrote.

Over the years, SoftBank has invested in several high-profile Indian companies such as Flipkart, Ola, Paytm, Delhivery, FirstCry, and Swiggy.