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Inside Blackstone · 2 min · Oct 13, 2026

SoftBank backs the AI ecosystem and its robotics portfolio

Masayoshi Son favors active investment across AI companies rather than betting on one area. He says SoftBank has more than 30 robotics companies preparing to take on tiring human work.

Masayoshi Son

Founder & CEO, SoftBank

Founded SoftBank in 1981 and leads SoftBank Group, a major investor in AI, chips and data centers.

About this segment

Masayoshi Son favors active investment across AI companies rather than betting on one area. He says SoftBank has more than 30 robotics companies preparing to take on tiring human work.

From “SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son: Superintelligence, AI Investing, and the Future of Robotics”, Oct 13, 2026. Watch the full episode

“We invest, you know, not as a passive investor. We, you know, more involved with the growth of the company, bringing synergy among our portfolio company.”
Masayoshi Sonat 15:53 · Inside Blackstone15:53

Takeaways

  1. SoftBank invests across AI, not just one category.
  2. Son describes an active role with portfolio companies.
  3. He sees robots taking on tiring jobs.

In this episode

Full episode
  1. 12:30Son argues AI safety requires progress, not a slowdown2:53

  2. 15:11SoftBank backs the AI ecosystem and its robotics portfolio2:20

  3. 24:58Schwarzman sees AI as a decades-long investment shift3:43Up next
  4. 3 more moments in the full episode

Transcript

From the transcript Inside Blackstone publishes with the episode.

  1. 15:19

    You've essentially bet the farm in the sense that you're investing across you know, the LLMs, the chips, the, you know, the data centers, et cetera. Why not pick just one of those areas? No, I wouldn't pick just one, okay? This is the AI era starting, AI generation starting. The history is going to be created, okay? So, I don't have to run one company and be a CEO of one operating company. I can be investor.

  2. 15:53

    I create an ecosystem, ecosystem of group of companies that we invest. We invest, you know, not as a passive investor. We, you know, more involved with the growth of the company, bringing synergy among our portfolio company. Usually, we are largest shareholder of our portfolio company, like 20%, 30%, 80%, okay? So, we have more involvement with each of the CEO, but only focused AI-related. You recently said that SoftBank has begun mass-producing robots at a physical AI plant, with robots producing robots.

  3. 16:38

    I'm curious what these robots are being produced to do? Yes, so we are very quietly developing those, our portfolio company, family company. We have more than 30 robotics companies in our portfolio and very quietly they're preparing the time to come, okay? But, as I said in the beginning of conversation, the humans still doing a lot of tiring job. Doing dishes like I do, exactly. Right? Who enjoy, who enjoy that, right?

  4. 17:11

    So, if those things were done by robots, the human can focus doing something more fun, more exciting. I think the story of you at 16 years old going over to the, you know, really with your own,