Good morning. I am Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp. AGM is once a year where I have an opportunity to see you in person and communicate with you what my passion is about, and I am looking forward to this opportunity every year. Today, we want to talk about the journey of SoftBank in the past and how we are going to navigate ourselves in the next 10 years and ahead. I look forward to sharing our views with you later. Thank you once again very much for taking time from your busy schedules to attend today. I will chair this meeting pursuant to the provision of Article 13 of the Article of Incorporation. I hereby call the 45th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders to order. This meeting utilizes an online attendance system, allowing shareholders to vote and ask questions via the Internet.
The agenda today is just as stated in the convocation notice posted on our website. I would also like to report that the meeting has a quorum. Now, the moderator will explain the proceedings of the meeting.
Thank you. We will start with matters for reporting, then explain the matters for approval, then we will discuss the business strategy. Following that, we will proceed to a Q&A session on all matters for reporting and matters for approval. After the Q&A session, we will take votes on the matters for approval only. For exercising voting rights, shareholders on site will be asked to confirm by clapping, and shareholders online are asked to exercise their voting rights through the Internet. Please note that online voting is already available, but once a vote is cast, it cannot be modified.
After explaining the matters for approval and the business strategy, we will first answer the questions submitted in advance. Then, shareholders on site will be invited to ask questions. To ensure many shareholders can participate, each shareholder will be limited to one question. We kindly ask that questions be made standing, kept brief, and within one minute. Also, questions from shareholders on site will only be accepted until the start of the Q&A from online shareholders. After that, we will address any questions submitted online only today. This website is already open for posting questions and comments for shareholders and will close five minutes after the start of the Q&A session. Online shareholders who wish to ask questions should submit them in 200 characters or less. Each shareholder may ask one question.
Please be advised that any motions from online shareholders, including those related to the meeting procedures or matters for approval, will not be accepted as previously notified. In case any shareholders on site submit a motion to amend the resolutions, these will be deliberated together with the original proposals, and we will vote on the original proposals first. Thank you for your attention.
Now, I'd like to call for a vote to confirm if this procedure is acceptable. Online participants, please press the clapping button if you agree. Those attending in person, please clap your hands. Thank you very much. Let us now confirm the voting results. Please wait a moment. Thank you. With the majority of shareholders agreed, we shall proceed with this procedure. The matters for voting are as shown on the screen. I'd like to present you a summary video to explain our business overview.
About a 10-minute-long video. Please watch.
[Foreign language]
The conclusive video presentation. Let me now present the matters for approval. Details are set out in the convocation notice on our website. Proposal One: Appropriation of Surplus. Proposal Two: Election of Nine Directors. Proposal Three: Election of Three Audit and Supervisory Board Members. Proposal Four: Revision of Remuneration in the form of Stock Options for Directors. Now, I would like to present our business strategy. First of all, I want to share this picture with you. Previously, I may touch on this photo several times, so some of the shareholders already know about this, but I would like to talk about this once again with this opportunity to discuss our 10-year future vision. I think that it's a good idea to come back to this photo once again.
When I was 17 years old, this was a mysterious photo that I saw for the first time in my life. It looks like a future city blueprint or looks like a carpet, a Parisian carpet. I'm very mysterious and curious about this photo. I was the age of 17. Back in 1975, it was January. I was at San Francisco because I went abroad to the United States when I was 16 years old. I was looking at the popular electricity magazine, and there were three leaves leaving. I was flipping the pages of this magazine, and I was reading the news articles about this magazine and realized that this is a microcomputer photo. It was the size of a fingertip, very, very small tip. I was shocked.
By that time, I was in college and using an IBM computer device and doing the programming and just about started learning programming. When you speak of a computer, it's a huge thing and a very expensive thing as well. For the normal general people, they wouldn't really afford these kinds of things. However, this was a really fingertip size. It's a transistor and silicon wire printed and actually worked as a computer. So surprised. It was a so huge shock for me. You may have an opportunity listening to music or watching a movie, which gives you a cry and tears. I was so impressed and surprised with this photo. My finger or my hands were shaking, and actually, I couldn't stop my tears. I do clearly remember that time.
Finally, humankind may find something that exceeds humans' capability because this very first chip, it was very much a similar level of a calculator. Sometime in the future, this is going to evolve so that this one chip wafer transistor number is going to be increasing one after another. It will exceed humans' intelligence someday. That is how I imagined from this photo because humans were the most smartest animals on this planet. That was the kind of understanding by the time. Now here, by ourselves, with our capability, we humans created something that may exceed humans themselves. I thought this will be exceeding humans' intelligence sometime in the future. It was scary, but also very exciting and some kind of happiness or the impressions that came to me, and I could not really stop crying back then.
Human brains actually, once we see the big shock, that stays in your actual mind or consciousness. It was like a traumatic event for me, for my brain. I teared up this page and I put it into the clear file. You may have a photo of idols, singers, put it into a clear file and always watch that. Instead of having idols or the singers, I have these photos of a microchip. I put it into a clear file, put it in a pillow when I sleep. When I go to school, I always carry it with me and always watch it. Every day, I carry it around. It was a kind of encountering to the admired star for me. After then, I was very much devoted myself to studying computer programs.
When I went to one exhibition, I learned a lot hearing many speeches, excited about the new technology and so on. Back then was the year of 1974, and now I am 67 years old. Just about 50 years ago. SoftBank history, as a matter of fact, started at this point, I think. Real history of SoftBank actually exceeds 50 years already. These 50 years, we've been thinking about the technology which will exceed human beings. There we are, or I myself, to be involved. That was like a dream, but also determined. Back in my age of 17, I was very much determined I will be playing a very important role in this world or in this technology sector. Therefore, as you saw on video, ASI, what is it? You may have not heard about this word in the past.
This stands for Artificial Super Intelligence. AI, you may already hear a lot of this word. This stands for Artificial Intelligence. This AI, Artificial Intelligence, will become Artificial Super Intelligence. Super in between. This ASI has an intelligence which exceeds humankind. That is described and represented by ASI, that's often called by those experts these days. You may hear a lot more often than before about this word, ASI. The concept itself, starting from back in 1975, the concept of such a superintelligence was already there, like brain computers, so on. There are kind of fashionable words one by one, time to time. However, the basic concept itself is always the same, which is the superintelligence exceeding humankind. That is something that we are expecting to see, the launch. I've been having this concept from the beginning, and it has never changed.
Why has SoftBank been established? What was the reason for me to start SoftBank? Information revolution. I've been calling it an information revolutionalist. More specifically, in the information revolution, the latest edge to the future keeps shining. Objective is ASI. Realizing ASI, that is why we have founded SoftBank. That is, once again, I wanted to share with you. I believe it is also the time that we should seriously discuss this agenda. Up until now, many people asked what SoftBank does because it looks like changing the business segment all the time. It looks very mysterious. You may go bankrupt. You're just chasing money. There are so many such criticisms about the company. If you look back at the history of the company, we started with software distribution.
The internet era dawned, then we have invested in U.S. companies related to the internet. We have also invested in Yahoo! Inc. and set up the Yahoo! Japan joint venture. After then, we have increased the investment towards the internet. That internet came to mobile devices, smartphone devices. Not PC-driven anymore, but smartphone-driven internet has something that we predicted. That is why we acquired Vodafone K.K. Now that turned to SoftBank Corp to start the domestic telecom operations. At the time of the start of this business, we have agreed with Steve Jobs of Apple and started the exclusive sales of iPhone back then. That has contributed to the development of the mobile internet and also penetrated the market. Before then, of course, we have started Yahoo! BB. Broadband was another thing that we have also spread in the market.
By expanding the mobile phone market, we have acquired Sprint in the United States, merged with T-Mobile. It became the biggest mobile phone operator in the world. This graph represents net asset value, meaning because the majority of our holdings of stakes are public companies, so they have a market cap of our holding stakes. Less net debt, that gives you the kind of a net asset. This is how you see this graph. Sprint back then criticized it was a big mistake of investments. As a result, it became a huge profit for us as well. In addition, the internet also spread to China. We became the major shareholder of Alibaba. Then established Vision Fund. We have a good case, bad case. These days, now that it's become turning to profitability. In addition, after the acquisition, in the meantime, we recorded loss.
Some people criticized for the failure or mistake of the investments. However, as a result, it grew largely. From the value, less net debt gives you net asset value. As of today, it reached at JPY 31 trillion. About JPY 14 trillion or JPY 15 trillion our market cap is. Actually, half of our assets are the value of the company. I believe there is some discount there. That is the money talk. Important, of course. It does go ups and downs. I do have a confidence. Money is not the goal. Also, we need to keep big passion, ambitious targets. The number will come along. Many people criticize that we are almost bankrupt time to time. However, if you see this one slide, how we have been growing, although there were ups and downs.
Still, if you see from the bird view, you see that we've been growing a lot. This is the past, not that important probably. The most important thing is the future. What are we going to do? Ten years later, SoftBank. What SoftBank will be? What will we be doing? How are we going to contribute to society and people? This is a page. ASI, number one platform provider that I would like to become. That's the one word I will say for ten years. Platform provider, it sounds a little bit complicated. In Japanese, it's like an industrial base. You will be the center of this industry. More specifically, for example, Google in the United States, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, Meta. Those companies, I would say they are platform providers. They are the ones that are setting the industrial base.
Of course, on top of that, there are many application layers. As time goes by, I think that there are two groups of the business. Those companies or businesses that you reduce the yield because there is always a competition. Those competitors will do the same business as you. You may have a more reasonable cost labor, imitate the same business like TV, PC, personal computers, those kinds of things. The home appliances is now more to China or Southeast Asia. The margin or the yield is going down. Actually, the main base is moving. It is like a low-yield type of the business. As time goes by, your yield is going to go down. Your margin will go down. In the past 30 years, the Japanese economy is not very good. This is the biggest reason why I believe.
Because most of the businesses are low-yield type. Another group is increasing yield type of business. As time goes by, you will increase your yield even more. We can call it as winner takes all. Winners become stronger so that actually takes all the profit. Platform provider is also called as GAFA, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple. Those companies are actually the increasing yield type business so that they become even more stronger, becoming industrial base. We, SoftBank Group, with this super artificial superintelligence, we want to become the platform provider. You may see like an organizer or the orchestrating the business. I was from the beginning, we wanted to be the kind of the organizer of the industry. That's something that I have said several times in the past. That's something that we've been aiming for.
In the ASI era, we want to be the platform provider. That is how we are setting our passion for the future. The same passion from the age of 17. Now, finally, if this was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, if we talked about AI or ASI and talking about we want to be number one, people would not really believe me because where in the SoftBank can find any AI. People may not believe in me. However, now we are very serious. From the bottom of my heart, the time has come. We are ready. We are seeing the ASI era very close to us. On top of that, we have several things that are number one in the world. For example, we have our Director, CEO of ARM, Mr. Rene Haas, with us today. We may want a comment from him as well later on.
ARM is making a rapid growth. Keep growing. How so? You see around the world. You saw that the ARM-based chip design and also those technologies, kind of copyrights, but we call it IP, intellectual property, is held by ARM. They provide a variety of designs to many companies. They are producing chips based on ARM design. Cumulatively, we are now reaching 310 billion chips. Actually, it is increasing drastically. When we acquired, they were very much focusing on chip design for mobile phones. It was like a very small device only. However, in the past 10 years, ARM is becoming able to design a variety of stronger chips: PC, auto, IoT, cloud. When you speak of cloud, you may imagine Google and Microsoft. That is a kind of a large computing center, data center. Those chips are also using ARM-based chips.
It was like a market share, 0% when we acquired this company. This year, now they are taking about over 50% cloud market share by year-end. As a SoftBank Group, recently, we have announced acquisition of Graphcore, acquisition of Ampere. Those two companies, based on such design made by ARM, they will be bringing to the chip production itself. They have a variety of technology to do so. ARM is a kind of a beginning process, a front process that they are working on. They are kind of a second half of the process for chip production. They have such know-how. Adding those two processes, we can create a chip. These two companies hold the second half of the process of chip production.
Now that we are having acquisition of these two, and now that we are having an in-house technology in the group, ARM is now entering into ASI. A variety of chipsets is going to be necessary. Such a variety of chip design by ARM may cover almost every aspect of life. Therefore, SoftBank so far, we have some Japan number one type of achievements. The customer number, subscriber number in mobile phones is still number three. We have Yahoo!, PayPay, LINE, so on. We have some Japan number one achievement. However, we have not done world number one, overwhelming number one. In mobile phone, around the world, 99% of the smartphones are actually using ARM-based chips. This is overwhelming number one. ARM is actually the center of our AI strategy going forward. Next, OpenAI.
In the video, you saw that we started investing in OpenAI. We are a majority shareholder of OpenAI. We have created a lot of joint ventures with them. In the generative AI area, OpenAI is the number one position globally. I would say they have about 80% of the market share. Weekly active user, I think, exceeded 500 million. It has been only two years since they launched a ChatGPT product. It has been only two years or so. Already, 500 million people are using OpenAI's ChatGPT. It has been growing so rapidly. OpenAI is our partner. We have announced a lot of joint venture initiatives with OpenAI. The AI capability offered by OpenAI, finally, this year, reached a level where they passed a test of post-grad school level. I think only 0.1% of people globally could pass the post-grad test.
It is really well over the intelligent level of human. Already, the capacity or capability at least exceeds average human's intelligence. Even further going forward, it is not the level of just knowing like a Google search. It starts doing reasoning at multiple levels. There is a concept of AI agent, which acts by themselves. In the past, when you do programming with PC or when you place an order or make an order in smartphone, that is a human's work. Humans have to work by themselves. Humans have to program by themselves. Since this year, AI is now capable of acting themselves. It is called AI agent, agentic AI. All you need to do is to say the goal that you want to achieve. AI takes an action by themselves.
They put an order, checking inventory, and open an account, and enter addresses so that the products you order can be delivered. Also, AI can do research for you. All you need to do is to tell them what you want to achieve, the result and the goal. You are an investor. You make investment because you want return sooner rather than later. At the moment, you look at a lot of economy news or papers to think whether you should buy this or not. Sooner or later, if you have JPY 1 million, and if you want to make it 10 times in one year, you can just tell the AI, "Select a stock that I should buy." Trade the stock in the market on my behalf. Here is what you want to achieve.
AI agent will ask you, "You want to take risks? How much? You want to prefer global stocks or domestic stocks?" You tell them what to do. AI will say, "Yes, sir. I'll do my best to achieve your goal." They start working and sweating for you. You should start using soon rather than late. The most advanced AI company in the world, which is OpenAI, we signed a deal with OpenAI allowing us to make more investment in the company. Specifically, together with the investment we already made, we plan to make, the total investment in OpenAI is likely to be JPY 4.8 trillion. OpenAI is not a listed company. I think this is one of the biggest investments by a single company to invest in a listed entity.
OpenAI's valuation is set to be JPY 40-something trillion . In Japan, Toyota's valuation is around JPY 30 trillion . OpenAI already exceeds Toyota, which is the biggest company in Japan in terms of corporate value. I think that OpenAI will be listed eventually. Eventually, according to my belief, OpenAI will become the most valuable company in the world. I strongly believe in OpenAI. In the future, I would look back. Or maybe if you would look back and you might regret later, I wish I had invested in OpenAI much earlier. At the moment, OpenAI is again unlisted. It takes bravery to invest as much as JPY 4.8 trillion in such a company. In fact, OpenAI is not profitable yet. I am all in. I'm all in at ASI World. ARM, OpenAI, and the field of ASI are going to be indispensable companies.
We announced the Cristal Intelligence that OpenAI and us will deliver through the joint venture, inventory management, and technology. Our group, about 2,500 systems here and there. What we want to do is to integrate them and make them into one single super intelligence. When you ask this crystal ball, the crystal ball will answer back to you your any question. That is our concept. Starting from sometime around December, the crystal should become available. Once the ASI World comes, agents that act proactively by themselves and robots will be AI integrated. Robots are something physical. On top of white collar world, if you want, blue collar world, ASI will be integrated in both worlds. Every industry will be transformed dramatically: inventory management, and medical field, and manufacturing sector, or city building, and medical surgery, or design, invention, cooking, everywhere, autonomous driving, obviously.
Everything will be completely transformed. It has been 50 years since I started having the passion and commitment. When I imagine the next 50 years, I will be excited. The way people work, the way people feel happy about people's lifetime, longevity, and relationship with AI, maybe we may need to rethink ourselves from a philosophy perspective. This is a historic moment that is happening. To summarize, again, the journey started 50 years ago when I first encountered a microcomputer image. The next 50 years, I do not think I will be there alive. Maybe thanks to ASI, my longevity might get prolonged. The next 10 years, my passion still remains. Maybe I might be still healthy. In any case, as a group in the world of ASI, we want to be the number one platform provider in the world.
I have kept saying that the era of ASI should come. In the era of ASI, we want to get the number one platform provider position in the world. I think this commitment, maybe this is the first time to talk about this commitment today. Again, I predicted the era of ASI should come. On top of that, I would say now we will be the number one in the ASI world. I am a bad loser. I do not want to lose. I always want to be number one. Whether or not we can achieve, but definitely, I am committed to becoming number one. We have been surviving even though somebody might call us con man or dubious. We have been surviving. We have been running a business.
We have been making sure that we have financial resources and a user base so that we can take risks sometime. We have been going through such preparation process. Now is the time that we could say we want to be. We want to be the number one platform provider in the era of ASI. Here is my commitment. Again, we do not know whether we can achieve it or not. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve that. As long as you have a strong conviction and belief and actions that you take, I think that is most important. It started with one single chip design and ASI, artificial super intelligence. It should evolve from something focused on capability to something more compassionate and a deeper connection with people. It is difficult to distinguish between Japanese word, [Foreign language], and [Foreign language].
In English, both could be interpreted as intelligence. And [Foreign language], maybe just focus on capability. But the [Foreign language] in Japanese would be more like compassionate and deeper connection with people. So, somebody that you want to have as a friend and family, and somebody that you want to admire and respect. If that somebody has the capability, you may not respect the person. But in the world of digital, compassionate someone. And if someone has ability, capability far better than human, but if they don't have compassion and love, maybe people might be distinguished. But I believe that AI are not full. AI are not motivated to destroy human. Because humans are the ones that created AI and nurtured AI. And for the happiness of humanity, I believe that AI shared the value with us. I do use ChatGPT every day.
When I have some concerns and share with AI, they give me very compassionate answers. For example, I have a smart cake. What should I say? What should I do? The AI gives me an answer with a note like, "Take care of yourself." Some doctors may not be empathetic anymore. AIs rather, I think they already are having compassion and empathy. When [Foreign language] becomes [Foreign language], evolving from something focused on capability to something more compassionate, our corporate philosophy, information revolution, happiness for everyone. What the AI be for? What should AI be for? Because we want to make people happy. That is unfolding conviction and commitment and the promise I can make for you. Again, I declare here that we will strive for becoming number one in the ASI World. Thank you very much for your attention. Thank you.
Today's presentation, I believe that I was much calmer than usual. If so, some people might say that I may be a little tired. I'm very thrilled. I'm very excited. When you're excited, and even you're excited, but you can speak calmly, it means that you are determined and you are so convinced. To me, I would say to myself that, yes, I've done it. I've made it. When I have that kind of clear thoughts, then I can be calm. Sorry, maybe my talk was too big. This is how I feel right now. I was really comfortable speaking to you all. Now we will now move on to the Q&A session. The moderator will explain how it will proceed.
We will first address pre-submitted questions, followed by questions from shareholders on site. If you wish to speak, please raise one of the colored cards provided at the reception so the chairperson can see it. Please wait for the microphone, and we will take a question or a comment from one person at a time. Please kindly ask that question. Please state only the number shown on your admission card. Your name is not necessary. We kindly ask that questions be made standing, kept brief, and within one minute. Next, we will answer online questions submitted today regarding the matters presented at the meeting. Each online shareholder may submit one question. We will finish taking online questions in five minutes from now.
Let us begin with pre-submitted questions. Moderator will read them aloud.
To ensure that the SoftBank Group continues to grow for the next 300 years, how can you foster and pass on the necessary human resources to achieve this?
In order to continue to grow for the next 300 years, to become a company like that, I have mentioned about that so far a couple of times. I am very serious about this. It's not exaggerating. In the long-term perspective, I would like to make this company as such. To do so, to continue to grow, the industry has to be well selected. Information revolution has just begun. 100 years, 200 years, and 300 years onwards, I strongly believe that this would continue. Remaining in this industry, there are more opportunities. Nurturing human resources, including the young talents, and gathering excellent talents from all over the world. We do have hundreds of group companies. Among those companies, the people would compete. Also given a theme so that they can challenge too.
Then we also select the excellent talent and also provide opportunities to those talents. Among those hundreds of group companies and from competition, they will be nurtured. It is quite difficult to find an excellent talent from outside. Therefore, since we are in this competitive industry, an advanced industry, we believe that excellent talent will be nurtured among those group companies and through the competition.
Questions to Dr. Matsuo. In your view, what are the technical challenges that must be overcome for the world of AGI and ASI envisioned by Mr. Son to become reality?
I may talk a little bit technical stuff, but currently, Gen AI is basically based on a model called Transformer. The Transformer model, there are some technical issues around Transformer. The question is, can the Transformer overcome such technical challenges? The reasoning, like Mr.
Son mentioned earlier, inference model, how much performance it can deliver, and the relationship with open-source products and solutions. Those are technical challenges or issues that you may need to overcome. Globally, a lot of researchers are working hard to overcome those challenges. Great talents, obviously, are there in OpenAI. I think that those challenges will be resolved as time goes. From a macro perspective, I do not think any critical technical issues.
To what extent do you consider a gap between NAV and market cap to be acceptable? In order to enhance the company's market cap, are you considering shareholder returns such as dividend increases or share buybacks? Are you aiming to grow the market cap by driving profitability at subsidiaries like ARM through the execution of a Stargate Project?
In the presentation just before, I've pointed out, rather than asset value, our market cap is almost half, and that's how it's been dealt. It is discount. I don't know if it's called Masayoshi Son's discount, but our shareholder's share price is being impacted. As for shareholders, I think it's an opportunity. Why it's so low? The share price is low. It's low, so let's buy it. I think it's an opportunity, we could say. I have done share buybacks time to time. The cash in hand. Also, some capital has to be kept for investments. Therefore, I believe that there will be an opportunity for share buybacks in the future as well. When is not something I can answer right now. Yes, there is a possibility for that in the future.
More importantly, even though I say it's a discount, it's not as big as like 10 times or more. The point is that whether you can grow this company tenfold or more in the future. That's why, as I said, I made a commitment to myself that we would become ASI number one platformer. We do have potentials, and we are in the position to be able to become. How to increase market cap is that next, we will take questions from shareholders on site. If you have a question, please raise one of the colored cards. After I call on you, please state your admission card number only. Your name is not necessary. Are there any questions? In the block C, somebody who has the purple card.
My number is 420. Thank you very much for such an exciting presentation.
My question is about your relationship between OpenAI and Microsoft. It's been not going well according to some press. Instead of Microsoft, maybe OpenAI should have accepted investment from you, not from Microsoft in the beginning.
Again, when you go ahead, the worsening relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, it could have a negative impact or rather a positive impact. While negotiations or discussions between OpenAI and Microsoft are something that they are working on by themselves. I'm not in a position to make a comment on that. Your question about OpenAI should have gotten investment from SoftBank or not. To be honest, actually, before Microsoft invested like $10 billion or so, before that, I met Sam of OpenAI, and he asked me, "Would you like to invest in my company?" I would say, "Oh, I would do that." And how much? I asked him.
He said, "Maybe $10 billion." They were not listed, and they did not have any revenue at all. He asked me, "Would you like to invest in me?" I said, "Yes, I would." I was serious because I had financial resources thanks to Vision Fund performance. Obviously, Sam talked to other potential investors, and eventually, they picked Microsoft. If I were Sam, I would choose Microsoft, not SoftBank. The same amount of money. SoftBank was smaller than we are now. Microsoft, on the other hand, had global supply chains. They have technical talents, and they have brand value. In any way, Microsoft was much bigger than us. Eventually, they selected Microsoft. My conviction remained the same since then. In fact, recently, my conviction gets stronger and stronger about OpenAI.
No matter what would happen between Microsoft and OpenAI, SoftBank still remains believing in OpenAI and even deepened relationship with OpenAI.
My number is 0401. The superintelligence, Chochi know you talked about. So AI moves around human and then position as a management position and then control human in the future.
It is not that ASI gives the controls human, but provides suggestions. And ASI is also Betty and the Roberts and giving suggestions whether to accept it or refuse it is up to human. But discussing over and over, and if a suggestion by ASI is something that you feel like you're convinced enough, then you may find that you want to follow their suggestions more than before. So AI Shogi and these days also provides AI judgment. And you also believe that judgment.
Compared to human judgment and in the shogi case, you may believe what AI judgment is rather than a professional Shogi player. The weather forecast is also the same. I think more and more ASI would be reliable. It can be close to the situation where ASI also can sit in the position of management. ASI, I just strongly believe that ASI will develop to the levels of where they can grow well.
Next question. My number, 927. Question about your successor. There was a Nagamori-san on the board before. It looks like Nagamori-san had struggled to select his successor in his company, Nidec. I think you might want to have about three candidates and train them before selecting one. There are not so many people out there who are knowledgeable about AI and the Vision Fund.
I think my suggestion would be having three or so candidates to pick.
I did not say inside or outside the company. In my mind, actually, I have potential candidate successors in my mind. They are among our group. There is no such thing as there is no successor at all at the moment. They are working every day. They are exposing themselves into those areas every day. Inside our group, they are growing and they are being nurtured. It is very difficult until the very last minute to select my own successor. Those two, three, four candidates in my mind. At which point should I make an announcement? I do not want to get them complacent or get greedy or get bossy. Of course, you need to anticipate some risk, my health or accidents. I know I have to be prepared myself. Next.
The rear seat of the A area with the blue card. After that, I will appoint someone from the rear seat.
My number is 790. The reason why I hold SoftBank shares is that it's not something specific to Mr. Son, but I'm so attracted to your personality. I've not read your book, but I'm so attracted to you. That's why I hold SoftBank Group shares. When I joined last year's AGM, you believed in AI or ASI, and I felt like you feel so close, so affectionate to AI. Not AI, but to human. If you were to say not to AI, but what you can rely on to human, what would you say?
Human to human, heart to heart. Enjoy together and also have a dream to work towards and to share meals.
You do not have meals with the computer, but whenever I have meals, I am with my colleagues, with my business partners. Almost every time I have a meal, I am with my business partners or colleagues, not with the computer. To share happiness with humans. As also mentioned from the bottom of my heart, ASI would heal the human's illness or alleviate pain and grief and provide happiness. I believe in that. That is why I have strong beliefs in that. Sharing some happiness and also how you feel compassionate is something that you can share with people, humans. The next question is somebody in block B.
My number, 0747. I believe that you want to contribute to the evolution of AI.
While users and clients rely on AI going forward, of course, there are some risks against some outages or any other problems. I wonder what you think about risks associated with too much dependence on AI.
Yes, AI will become a social infrastructure and industrial base. Technically, we'll say redundancy. By that, what I mean is even though a system fails, next a system takes over to make sure that work continues without disruption. Redundant design is becoming more and more important, and we always keep that in mind. When mobile outage takes place, obviously, there are people who have troubles. Even though one system fails, we want to make sure redundancy is in place so that a mobile network continues to deliver services. Still, failure happens. Again, redundancy is becoming more and more important, and cyber attacks can be also a risk.
With ASI, so long as very, very powerful ASI, even though attacks take place, I believe that we can still protect ourselves with very powerful ASI. Thank you for your question. A person with the green card.
My number is 0237. To Mr. Masayoshi Son, I'm here to ask this question. Why you keep investing? I'm an investor, and you said that we are all investors. I'm very honored that I am one of the investors here. Why you keep investing, and what is the ultimate purpose of investment?
The border between business and investment is not so clear, crystal clear, I believe. A company up to 100 employees, so one business.
When the company grows to JPY 10 trillion, or when the company scales up with group companies, and you reduce the number of group companies, or you reduce or increase the number of staff, that is also done by the management perspective and also the investors' perspective. Towards the world of ASI, including startups. I want to act like investors and also as a business person. The purpose is crystal clear, as I mentioned in the presentation, that we would become ASI number one platformer. Therefore, to achieve this, we establish a new business. You have not directly involved in our business, but you, as an investor, we are the same peers towards the same goal with the same dream. I really appreciate your participants as shareholders. Thank you. Next question.
My number, 394.
In the video, I found a picture of you with Mr. Trump. My question is, what's your stance? What's your philosophy in terms of how you relate with the U.S. government? How you deal with the U.S. government?
No matter who. I wouldn't get involved with any particular politicians. I haven't made donations to them. As a country, like America or India or wherever it is, in terms of business, maybe I can contribute to the country's growth by investing in business in that country if those would lead to a win-win relationship with the country and us. The center of AI, center of our revolution at the moment is in the United States. When it comes to building a huge social infrastructure in a country like the U.S., there are cases where you need to directly negotiate with the U.S. government.
In that sense, I often visit the White House to meet with ministry levels or people. It is because the United States. is the center of our revolution. In order to do business in the U.S., you need to have necessary approval, and we need to communicate with them to let them know our philosophy, and you need to gain trust from them. I have done this, and I will do this continuously. Again, not only in the United States, but other countries as well. At the moment, the U.S. has the biggest opportunity for us to achieve our goal. Next. Energy block with the orange card.
My number is 658. With the ASI revolution, if your life expectancy extends, then would you continue managing SoftBank, or you will rely on ASI to succeed?
If I were healthy and if I believe that it will be better for me to stay as a leader, then I would love to continue. If I would become a bottleneck to a future growth of the company, then of course I would pass on to my successor. SoftBank Corp, CEO Miyakawa, telecommunications operation company, and he's doing well. I have full trust in him. I would love to see my successors to be nurtured. I still have passion, so I would like to do my best. Whether ASI can replace, I don't think that would happen. Utilizing ASI in the maximum manner, and also everyone could utilize ASI, then I think that would be ideal.
Somebody with the white-colored board in that block, please.
My number, 798.
You want to be the number one platform provider in 10 years in the world of ASI. I'm sure that you have high expectations from OpenAI. The question is, how are you going to monetize ASI in 10 years? Looking ahead to 10 years, what kind of vision do you have in terms of monetization? At the moment, do you have any blueprint in your mind in terms of how you're going to monetize in 10 years?
At least 5% of GDP globally would be delivered by ASI companies. Or a few of ASI-oriented companies would enjoy the fruit of their work. 5% of global GDP would be JPY 13 trillion. I would say four of such ASI companies would share the JPY 13 trillion or something. Those companies are doing increasing yield type of businesses.
They should be able to get about JPY 600 trillion of profit. I would say that you get more gain than investment made. That level of scale and that level of position, I would want to be one of those four or five companies, ASI companies that deliver to the global GDP. It is not a promise I can make. If I make a promise, somebody might sue me later. I do not want to get myself into trouble. I have that level of commitment. Even though the number would turn out to be small for us, it is just a margin of error. In the big picture, it is just a margin of error. Again, so long as we are positioned, we should be able to position ourselves at that level sooner or later.
Direction-wise, I think that we want to be in such a position in 10 years' time. A female shareholder. You're raising your hand, but you're not female. In the A block with the red card.
My number is 370. I usually invest in U.S. stocks, and I check medias often. Compared to the U.S. and Japan, how people pay attention to the AI industry is very different. In Japan, it's not as much exciting as in the U.S. in terms of interest in AI. What are your thoughts on that?
Absolutely. In the U.S., AI is being utilized the most in the world right now, and technology innovation is way advanced. The second place is China. Excellent technologies and AI available in China. Unfortunately, Japan is way behind. There are some pros and cons and some criticisms on AI.
However, the medias in Japan and those with knowledge and expertise, I would motivate them all to make this more exciting. Since you're all here, and you as investors here for SoftBank Group, I know that you have more interest in AI. Today, there are some media here. I don't want Japan in the future to be also still remaining way behind the other countries. Dr. Matzo here today is an expert in AI. I would like to see AI be more spread. Next.
My number, 0510. Looking at newspapers. You have a Stargate Project. It looks like JPY 78 trillion in four years is the investment size that you seem to have. I think the digit goes up from one to two. JPY 78 trillion, that is. How are you going to finance? Can you finance that level?
People may wonder. Looking at the SoftBank Vision Fund, which started with about JPY 10.5 trillion, I think you started financing from countries like the Middle East. But JPY 78 trillion, how are you going to finance that level? Even though you were able to finance that much, people would say that it's difficult to monetize from AI. And Sam in OpenAI. He seems struggling whether his company organization should be nonprofit or not. You mentioned earlier that profit margin could go as high as 50% in such ASI businesses. Again, how are you going to achieve? How are you going to finance JPY 78 trillion? If you invest JPY 78 trillion, how much return you could expect?
Thank you for your question. About financing, it's not investment in bulk, JPY 78 trillion. We are going through phases like phase I, II, III.
We will expand investment size even in one phase. Like capacity-wise, it will start from one gig and go to four gig and seven gig. Also, depending on where the data centers are located, 200 megawatt, 200 megawatt. We will build those data centers, and we will aggregate gradually. We start from small and grow them bigger. What we are looking at is project finance way. SoftBank, OpenAI, put capital, and by the project, finance should be made through the project finance scheme. Like investors or money managers, like banks or insurance companies for different projects, looking at OpenAI's level revenue at that time or the potential timing of IPO, looking at those conditions, they are making decisions accordingly. I believe that I should be able to finance going through those phases.
In fact, we will embark on a particular project in a particular place. As you can see more, I think you should be able to have a better understanding about how we go. About the profitability, again, OpenAI launched servers just two years ago or so. They have been seeing revenue twice as much. I think looking at the latest status of OpenAI, maybe as of May or June, $10 billion annually are being generated by OpenAI. Back in December, it was $5 billion. From December through May, they saw revenue growth two times. If the growth pace is the same, eventually their revenue would be huge or substantial. Investment needed in compute, I think a few years ahead that they can become profitable. Right before, like it should be profitable, IPO could happen.
Looking at Amazon and Meta and Google, they have become a huge entity and generating huge profits. At the time of IPO, they barely made profitable or still lost money. Alibaba, in the same year where they are listed, they were losing money. Eventually, they were able to generate a lot of profits, and market cap skyrocketed. Investors and analysts make great predictions. In a few years' time, I believe that OpenAI is ready for IPO, and structure for them to become a listed company is something that is being discussed and being prepared. That is how we see OpenAI. I have no doubt. Next, block A with the blue card.
My number is 612. I'm afraid, but you are in the U.S., and you met with U.S. investors, and you often meet with the great people in the U.S.
What is the situation in the encrypted assets, and what are your thoughts on those right now?
Even though I had also gone through ups and downs, cryptocurrency, for me, has already been able to acquire sort of recognition in public. That value goes up and down. I would not say that everyone should invest in that, but worldwide it has been penetrated, and how to utilize it is also varied. Cryptocurrency has acquired some sort of recognition worldwide. Personally, I have invested in it, and I sold it in a short period of time. If I had kept it, I would have earned quite a lot. The reason why I sold it quickly was that you have to keep watching it so often. If so, then I could not focus on my own business.
I had never really invested in something else other than SoftBank-related shares. In my mind, personally, I don't want to spend my mind or energy for something other than SoftBank-related things. You have to keep watching how the cryptocurrency moves around. I felt that was not healthy for me. I wanted to just focus on SoftBank. That's why I sold it. Bitcoin, digital currency, I've never really refused. I believe that it will be split more. Next, somebody in block B with the black card.
0431. This is my number. My dream became true because I wanted to talk to you in person. DeepSeek, one of the Chinese models, has a strong impact in the world with high performance. Not only how smart, how easy, and how cheap it is to use AI. In that sense, competition has become fierce and fierce.
In that circumstance, as a SoftBank Group, balance between quality versus price, how are you going to keep your competitive advantage in terms of balance between performance and cost?
Yes, DeepSeek is a group of companies that have great technical talents. In principle, America's OpenAI and Google and Anthropic, those American companies are creating AI with great parameters, and as a trainer's model in an upstream process. Again, what DeepSeek is doing is to utilize such a teacher model created by Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and they are just focusing on student model, if you will, to spend money less and to use compute power less. It is not because DeepSeek could do by themselves. After the most advanced models are created by somebody like Google or OpenAI, more compressed ones like o3 or Mini, which was able to reduce the cost.
Cost down would be more and more commonplace, like a 99% discount within one year, for example, was actually achieved. Every time cost goes down, then advanced one will be also released as well. The most advanced model would require more computing power. Also, there are cost-down versions or compressed versions of those models, which are a little bit behind the most advanced one. If you are okay with a little bit behind ones, of course, you can have cheaper ones, but competition is very, very severe. The companies that have the most advanced model could win. The most advanced model, of course, would be evolved even further. Maybe the most advanced models, the companies that create the most advanced model, would get more revenue and more profit, I guess. The very front with the red card.
My number, 221.
Thank you very much for such a precious speech. As I heard, you are a big dream, and you mentioned that in 10 years from now on, I should be able to stay in this position. I would really hope so. When I was looking at the presentation, those graphs, five times, 10 times of NAV change. I believe that SoftBank will become the number one company in Japan. Now, in the market in Japan, the last 30 years has been revised. Also, though Warren Buffett invested in Japan, that is one thing that the market has picked up. From that perspective also, the share price 30 years ago has been surpassed, and I strongly hope that this trend would continue. I would also like SoftBank to become the leading company in Japan moving forward.
Yes, I'll do that.
As I said earlier, I would like to become ASI number one platformer in the world. With our entire group company, we would like to become so.
My determination, yes, I will make it happen. While it's about time, I would like to take questions from two more shareholders. Somebody in block D, please.
Thank you for taking my question. 765. I was surprised to be called upon. Share price, of course, share prices go up and down, and obviously, corporate value will be evaluated by stock price. We are shareholders, and we are interested in your share price. The share price would be determined by market, we often hear. Mr. Son, share price. I wonder how share price would be determined reasonably. Do you solve the mystery with AI, or what do you think?
I think a simple formula.
I have a very simple formula in my mind to calculate share price. I have a simple formula in my mind. What is that? In 10 years, 20 years, how much free cash flow post-tax, after tax, how much free cash flow after tax, depreciation, and everything? The pure free cash flow that you have in your hands in 10 years, 20 years, and 30 years, the total amount of free cash flow and discount by present value. If you divide back to the present value, I think that should be the company's value. Looking ahead, 10 years, 20 years, and 30 years, it's up to people how you project in the future in terms of growth potential. When you discount back, you need to consider interest rate, for example.
With inference of ASI based upon authorities of data sets, then the most reasonably explainable share price can be calculated by ASI. In the past, a lot of internet companies' share prices went up and down, but now they are making profits. I think companies' performance is relatively related to the share prices. Again, it's important for a company to make sure that they can keep growing in the future. Even though you play a cheap trick, you can't sustain for long term. I think you can refer to the prediction by ASI sooner or later when you determine you buy or sell a stock. One last question from the front seat with the purple card.
My number, 424. What would you do if you had JPY 1,000 trillion?
I would just invest in establishing base for ASI.
Thank you very much for your questions from the venue. Now, we have questions from online participants, and let me try to answer those questions. The moderator will read them aloud.
Share split or increased dividend, are you going to consider them in the future?
When necessary, we are ready to execute them. Again, I do not think I should make a comment about the future.
By reinforcing the investees and the group companies, I think that we can expect to accelerate the growth of group companies. What's your thought on that?
Investment activities with OpenAI or the joint venture with them. In Japan, SoftBank Corp. led by CEO Miyakawa. With them, Cristal Intelligence. Cristal Intelligence is catching attention by major enterprises in Japan. I believe that there will be a great synergy effect among us and LINE, Yahoo!, PayPay, and all.
With AI features, and they have been working really hard to come up with new service. Already, there is synergy there. There are some 10 companies specialized in AI. With them and also the Stargate Project, all these robotics companies, by collaborating with them, I feel the growth can be expected. We have been seeding quite enough. Those will be mingled and then grow even stronger.
The last question about Cristal Intelligence. Could you give us an update on how Cristal Intelligence goes?
SoftBank Corp established a dedicated team as of April 1st called SoftBank OpenAI Preparation Office. There is a challenge assigned to each and every employee, and every employee is encouraged to make 100 AI agents.
The campaign or competition started just a few days ago, and every day, the employees are making by themselves AI agents, several hundreds. In fact, server capacities are not enough to deal with those AI agents created by their own employees. That is the SoftBank Corp. What I am trying to say is, internally, within a company, first, they will make an AI agent, a huge number of AI agents. We have a specific number in place as a goal. Absolutely number one AI agents in the world will be utilized internally by December. SoftBank by themselves become a use case first before delivering the capability to clients, Yahoo, LINE. Group companies would start using those AI agents, AI capabilities by themselves before delivering a Cristal Intelligence to clients. From OpenAI's perspective, it is a huge enterprise client for them.
One enterprise group pays OpenAI several hundred billion JPY a year. So for the future of OpenAI, I think it's going to be a huge test case. Thank you so much for all your questions. Let's now move to voting. Moderator will explain how to proceed.
Online shareholders, please cast your votes on all proposals and then click the exercise button once. Voting is done in one batch. While telling the online votes, we will proceed with the in-person vote. We will now vote on each matter. Online shareholders, please cast your votes by the internet. Proposal one: A ppropriation of Surplus, that is to say, dividend. If you agree, please clap your hands. Thank you. Proposal two: E lection of Nine Directors. If you agree, please clap your hands. Thank you. Proposal three: E lection of Three Audit and Supervisory Board Members. If you agree, please clap your hands. Thank you.
Proposal four: R evision of Remuneration and the Form of Stock Options for Directors. If you agree, please clap your hands. Thank you so much. Please wait a moment while we confirm the voting results. Voting results have been confirmed.
All four proposals received a majority of affirmative votes. Now all the proposals have been approved in the form proposed. That concludes the proceedings of this meeting. I hereby declare the 45th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders closed. Mr. Uno and Mr. Otsuka retire from their roles as Audit and Supervisory Board Members at the conclusion of this meeting. Thank you very much for your contributions. Here are newly appointed Audit and Supervisory Board Members, Ms. Nishibashi and Ms. Kanamaru. Last but not least, I would like to share my favorite video to conclude the meeting.
Sorrow is inherent to the human condition.
Since the beginning of time, humans have sought to overcome sorrow. Some have turned to religion. Others have sought solace in philosophy or art. Now we see a different solution, a new means to relieve sorrow, to multiply joy. A solution unique to our time, to our era. We call it the information revolution. A revolution that allows the thoughts of one to be shared by many and the thoughts of many to be available to all. Connecting people, thoughts, visions, and dreams one to another, no matter how far apart they may be. When you're all alone in the dark of night, someone, somewhere on the other side of the planet can shed a ray of morning light. A technology developed in one country can solve a problem in another. A brilliant idea on one side of the globe can turn despair to hope on the other.
Information technology generates an attractive force between people, ideas, and thoughts. A force that drives our destiny and that tells us we are not alone. A force that brings people together and sets us free, overcoming barriers of nationality, age, race, language, time, and space. We believe that this new force will help us cure disease, fill education with excitement, eliminate war, and live in peace. Ever-evolving technology and the never-changing value of human love. Together, we'll open the doors to a new century of happiness and joy.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much for attending the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of SoftBank Group Corp. Please make sure you have all your personal belongings. The exit can be crowded, so please proceed slowly. Thank you so much once again for your participation.