Masayoshi Son lays out AI forecast: $5 trillion a year by 2040

At SoftBank World, SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son laid out an enormous AI bet: by 2040, he thinks the world could be spending about $5 trillion a year on AI buildout, or roughly 800 trillion yen annually. Son’s case was simple enough. If AI revenue reaches 20% of global GDP by 2040, that level of spending starts to look defensible.

You can already see where SoftBank is heading. The company has been building toward an AI platform that spans chips, robotics, data centers, and large-scale computing. Its investment in OpenAI is expected to top $60 billion before the end of 2026, with part of that backed by a $40 billion bridge loan.

Son also waved off bubble concerns at SoftBank World, calling them “absurd,” even as U.S. tech companies and governments from India to the EU prepare their own massive infrastructure spending.

He also went deep on the power question. Son said AI data centers may need 3 terawatts by 2040, about 1.8 times current global electricity consumption, with gas doing the early work and fusion coming later. Data centers already consume huge amounts of electricity and water, and some estimates put them at nearly 3% of projected global electricity use by 2030.

Then came the bigger societal claim. Son said you could see 100 trillion autonomous agents by 2040, moving society from “human-centric” to “agent-centric.”

Maybe that timeline lands, maybe it doesn’t. But if you pay attention to AI infrastructure, this is the kind of forecast you watch closely. That was the message coming out of SoftBank World.