Masayoshi Son Prepares to Pick Successor From Within SoftBank

(Bloomberg) -- Masayoshi Son said he plans to hand over the reins of SoftBank Group Corp. to someone within the technology and telecom group, addressing what may be the single biggest concern among investors and business partners.

The 67-year-old has several candidates in mind, but won’t make an announcement until the last minute, Son said during a general shareholders’ meeting in Tokyo on Friday.

“I’m mentally prepared for anything, and am ready to hand over the reins at any time,” he said. He added that he didn’t want to make any announcement until the last minute for fear of making his successor arrogant. “It’s a delicate balance.”

SoftBank’s ability to finance big bets resides in part on fervent support from Japanese retail investors, who in the past have been quick to snatch up the tech investor’s bonds. Many have held on to SoftBank shares from before the dot-com boom and bust, waiting for decades for the stock to overtake its former highs.The annual shareholders’ meeting has given the billionaire a regular chance to pitch his vision of tech-driven progress to investors.

Son also said he’s now cornered key artificial intelligence chip architecture, part of an ambition to become the world’s top platform in an age in which AI surpasses human abilities. 

“We want to become the world’s top platformer for ASI,” he said, adding that it’ll be a winner-take-all arena. SoftBank controls chip designer Arm Holdings Plc and plans to invest as much as $30 billion in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. “These are indispensable for ASI,” he said, noting also that SoftBank has acquired Graphcore Ltd. and has plans to buy Ampere Computing LLC. “I’m all-in.”

Son seeks to build in Arizona a large manufacturing hub akin to China’s Shenzhen and help bring back high-tech manufacturing to the US, Bloomberg reported earlier. As part of that endeavor, he’s floated a partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which has a factory in the state and has pledged to invest a total of $165 billion in the US.

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