India can become AI chip capital of the world: SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son

As India makes strides in artificial intelligence (AI) and semiconductors, SoftBank’s Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son has said that the country can become the AI chip capital of the world.

In a meeting with some leading Indian startup founders in the national capital, Son, who has invested in several companies in the country, said he will invest more and more in AI in India in the coming years.

This was Son’s first trip to India in about two years. He was also reported to have met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, although there was no official communication about the meeting yet.

SoftBank has invested in several Indian startups, including Snapdeal, Ola, Oyo, Housing.com, and Grofers (now Blinkit and a Zomato company).

Son had earlier declared that SoftBank would invest $10 billion in India over the coming years.

As the generative AI race heats up, SoftBank CEO was reportedly aiming to raise about $100 billion for his AI venture, reports surfaced earlier this year.

Japan’s investment major swung to its biggest quarterly profit in two years in the September quarter, owing to the growing number of IPOs in the Indian markets.

SoftBank reported a net income of 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion) for the September quarter, a stark turnaround from last year’s net loss of 931 billion yen. The tech conglomerate’s gains were driven by rising share prices of publicly listed Indian companies within its Vision Fund investments.

“After we were making large losses in the Vision Funds, we were very conservative. So now we were able to generate good profits as a result of learning from that,” SoftBank Chief Financial Officer Yoshimitsu Goto said after the earnings.

The two Vision funds fully or partially exited investments to the tune of $1.85 billion. It made full exits from 10 portfolio companies, including digital payment firm Paytm.