--- title: Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and... description: Masayoshi Son, speaking at SoftBank's annual conference in Tokyo, predicted AI infrastructure will require $5 trillion per year in investment by 2040,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and calls bubble talk absurd | daily.dev og:description: Masayoshi Son, speaking at SoftBank's annual conference in Tokyo, predicted AI infrastructure will require $5 trillion per year in investment by 2040,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/KAYQ3pjjz.png og:image:alt: Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and calls bubble talk absurd og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and calls bubble talk absurd **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Masayoshi Son, speaking at SoftBank's annual conference in Tokyo, predicted AI infrastructure will require $5 trillion per year in investment by 2040, representing roughly 20% of global GDP. He dismissed bubble concerns as "absurd," escalating his previous characterizations of the question as blasphemy and an insult. Son also forecast AI data centres will demand three terawatts of power — 1.8 times current global consumption — initially supplied by gas before nuclear fusion takes over. He further predicted 100 trillion autonomous AI agents will operate without human oversight by 2040, marking a shift from a human-centric to an agent-centric world. None of these projections were accompanied by underlying models or calculations. SoftBank's cumulative investment in OpenAI is set to exceed $60 billion by end of 2026, partly funded by a $40 billion bridge loan, making the company a live test of whether AI returns will justify the capital expenditure. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SoftBank’s Son says calling AI a bubble is ‘an insult’](https://daily.dev/posts/softbank-s-son-says-calling-ai-a-bubble-is-an-insult--mbtouerah) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [What must happen for AI’s trillion-dollar gamble to pay off](https://daily.dev/posts/what-must-happen-for-ai-s-trillion-dollar-gamble-to-pay-off-w9wk3lfgo) · MIT Technology Review · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Can AI answer the $3 trillion question?](https://daily.dev/posts/can-ai-answer-the-3-trillion-question--pr0eiyjhf) · TechCrunch · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#ai-agents](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-agents), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#softbank](https://daily.dev/tags/softbank) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and calls bubble talk absurd","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz"},"datePublished":"2026-07-14T09:11:55.786Z","dateModified":"2026-07-14T09:24:21.398Z","description":"Masayoshi Son, speaking at SoftBank's annual conference in Tokyo, predicted AI infrastructure will require $5 trillion per year in investment by 2040,...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2cf0a595cbdc31c7b508a25bae2ccc08?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/2cf0a595cbdc31c7b508a25bae2ccc08?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/masayoshi-son-says-ai-will-cost-5tn-a-year-by-2040-and-calls-bubble-talk-absurd-kayq3pjjz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"ai,ai-agents,openai,softbank","timeRequired":"PT4M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Masayoshi Son says AI will cost $5tn a year by 2040, and calls bubble talk absurd"}]} ```