TOKYO (AP) — Worries about a bubble in artificial intelligence investments are absurd, SoftBank Group’s CEO Masayoshi Son said Tuesday, deriding such doubts as backward and akin to questioning the use of cars and planes.
“To ask whether AI is a bubble is a foolish question,” Son told executives at an annual company event in Tokyo. “AI will transform our lives completely, and do so in a way that generates profits.”
“Those who refuse to evolve are closing down their world. Those who condemn AI are themselves spitting upward,” Son added.
Financial markets have recently been swept by waves of concern that the meteoric rise in share prices of companies like Nvidia, and massive investments in data centers, might not yield returns that match hopes for huge profits from AI.
Son founded SoftBank more than four decades ago and is a pioneer in Japan’s technology investments. He was an early supporter of AI and has invested tens of billions of dollars in related companies.
Son said he estimates that almost $5 trillion in investments will be needed annually and globally to expand data centers, increase production of computer chips and provide energy systems and other infrastructure for AI.
“In 2040, approximately 20% of the world’s GDP will be replaced by AI-related industries, the world of superintelligence,” he said.
SoftBank oversees a sprawling collection of businesses through what it calls Vision Funds. Its other businesses include telecommunications and energy.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. earlier reported its profits for the fiscal year through March soared nearly five-fold to 5 trillion yen ($32 billion) from a year earlier as its AI investments paid off.
The tech giant has invested $34.6 billion in OpenAI. It sold its stake in computer chip maker Nvidia last year to free up funds for more investments in AI and data centers.
SoftBank recently started a battery business in Japan to build next-generation electric power infrastructure in anticipation of growing electricity demand driven by AI use.
AP Business Writer Elaine Kurtenbach in Bangkok contributed.
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, speaks during a business event in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (Miyuki Saito/Kyodo News via AP)
Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group, speaks during a business event in Tokyo, Tuesday, July 14, 2026. (Miyuki Saito/Kyodo News via AP)
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The British legal watchdog announced on Tuesday that it has upheld a suspension for the International Criminal Court's embattled chief prosecutor over allegations of sexual misconduct.
The move by the British Standards Board leaves Karim Khan banned from practicing law in his home country as the global court’s oversight body votes later this month on whether to remove him from office.
The 56-year-old is facing allegations of sexual misconduct with a female aide, a scandal that has dragged on for more than two years. He has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.
In June, the board immediately suspended Khan, a measure adopted “in very serious and urgent cases,” according to the regulator, following a complaint. After a hearing last week, the bar association upheld the suspension while disciplinary proceedings are underway.
Days before the British sanction, the executive committee of the ICC’s oversight body concluded that Khan had committed serious misconduct and recommended that he be removed from office.
A final decision on Khan’s fate is now up to the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, which will hold a special session on July 24 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.
The allegations against Khan were first reported to the court’s independent watchdog more than two years ago. An Associated Press investigation revealed that Khan was alleged to have seen the woman working in another ICC department and moved her into his office. She later became a regular presence on official trips, according to whistleblower documents.
On one foreign trip, Khan allegedly asked her to rest with him on a hotel bed and then “sexually touched her,” the documents said. Other alleged nonconsensual behavior cited in the documents included locking the door of his office and sticking his hand in her pocket. He also allegedly asked her several times to accompany him on a vacation.
The wrangling over Khan’s position comes as the court faces a new threat from the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, which has long criticized the ICC.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the United States was launching a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to U.S. sovereignty.”
Trump’s administration has brought sanctions against Khan and a dozen other staff in relation to Israeli warrants and investigations into American personnel in Afghanistan.
FILE - Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
