SoftBank's Masayoshi Son says AI will need $5 trillion a year
SoftBank's Masayoshi Son says AI will need $5 trillion a year by 2040, rejecting bubble fears while outlining vast power and infrastructure demands.
Five trillion dollars a year. That is the price tag SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son says the world must prepare for to build the AI era.
Speaking in Tokyo on July 14, 2026, he called talk of an AI bubble "absurd" and argued that investment on this scale is inevitable as capabilities and demand accelerate.
Why Son believes AI spending will surge
According to Son, AI could account for nearly 20% of global GDP by 2040. Based on that assumption, he said an annual investment of around 800 trillion yen, or approximately $5 trillion, would be relatively small compared to the economic value AI could generate.
While he did not explain the methodology behind the estimate, Masayoshi maintained that large-scale spending is inevitable as businesses and governments continue adopting AI technologies.
SoftBank has positioned itself at the centre of this transformation. Over the past two years, the company has invested heavily in OpenAI, AI infrastructure, robotics and data centres. Son also revealed that SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI is expected to exceed $60 billion before the end of 2026.
The challenge goes beyond funding
Masayoshi Son stressed that building the AI era is not just about money but also about infrastructure. He estimated that AI data centres could require around 3 terawatts of electricity by 2040, roughly 1.8 times today's total global power consumption.
To meet that demand, he believes natural gas will serve as a short-term energy source while nuclear fusion could eventually become the long-term solution. He also suggested that fusion power generated on Earth may prove more practical and cost-effective than collecting solar energy in space.
An agent-driven future
Looking ahead, Son predicted a future where AI agents become deeply integrated into everyday life. He envisioned around 100 trillion AI agents operating by 2040, capable of making decisions, completing tasks and interacting with one another without constant human input.
According to Son, this would represent a shift from a human-centric world to one where autonomous AI agents play a much larger role across industries, public services and governance.
What it means for the AI industry
Son's projections are ambitious, and many of the figures remain open to debate. However, they highlight the enormous investment that may be needed in computing infrastructure, advanced semiconductors, energy systems and networking over the coming decades.
Whether annual AI spending ultimately reaches $5 trillion or not, his remarks reinforce one message: the future of AI will depend as much on physical infrastructure and energy capacity as it does on software and algorithms.