--- description: Find out why Masayoshi Son made TIME’s list of the most influential people in artificial intelligence. title: TIME100 AI 2025: Masayoshi Son image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad7c9ab8c318e191/6998c922e1ba00b4f498dd60/Masayoshi-Son-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Aug 26, 2025 # Masayoshi Son Founder, chairman, and CEO, SoftBank by [Charlie Campbell](/author/charlie-campbell/) ## Charlie Campbell Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Editor at Large  Photo-Illustration by TIME (Source Photo: Kosuke Okahara—Bloomberg/Getty Images) Masayoshi Son isn’t shy about AI’s transformative potential. Having informed shareholders last year that he “was born to realize” artificial superintelligence, or ASI, the SoftBank founder has spent recent years pivoting his firm’s $180 billion assets into a raft of AI-related ventures. Those include a controlling interest in chip designer [Arm](http://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305840/rene-haas "undefined"), as well as British self-driving car start-up Wayve. “The next 50 years will be a time of profound transformation in how we work and what we value as happiness,” he says. “We are building a future where advanced technology empowers and serves humanity.” Son is backing ASI to become “10,000 times smarter” than humans in a decade, and he’s already pledged to raise $100 billion for the Stargate project—Silicon Valley’s latest bet to scale up U.S. data centers and AI infrastructure—in collaboration with Oracle, OpenAI, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX. Son is also reportedly proposing a vast $1 trillion AI and robotics complex in Arizona, incorporating a possible free-trade zone alongside top-ranking chipmaker TSMC. “I am more energized than ever because I have realized our ultimate mission: the evolution of humanity,” Son said in a[ statement](https://group.softbank/en/philosophy/message "undefined") about the vision. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305841/masayoshi-son-ai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305841/masayoshi-son-ai/"},"headline":"Masayoshi Son","datePublished":"2025-08-26T18:45:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T11:54:42.889Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305841/masayoshi-son-ai/","keywords":["Tech","list","franchise","Magazine","Special Project","sponsorshipblock","Accolades","TIME100 AI 2025"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad7c9ab8c318e191/6998c922e1ba00b4f498dd60/Masayoshi-Son-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Charlie Campbell","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/charlie-campbell/"}],"creator":"Charlie Campbell","articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltad7c9ab8c318e191/6998c922e1ba00b4f498dd60/Masayoshi-Son-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-tech/","name":"Tech"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-ai-2025/7305841/masayoshi-son-ai/","name":"Masayoshi Son"}}]}] ```