Small update on the Softbank Group $9984 (+0.98%) !!
I am still of the opinion that there is a lot to be said for Softbank Group becoming one of the biggest AI winners at the moment.big AI winners in the future!!!
I find the company very exciting and am a fan of Masayoshi Sonthe CEO of Softbank.
In the picture above you can see Jensen Huang (CEO of NVIDIA) and said Masayoshi Son at the NVIDIA AI Summit Japan held a few days ago. Many interesting things were discussed, but of particular note was the announcement that the Softbank Group, the first company in the world company to receive the latest Nvidia DGX B200 systems to work with NVIDIA to develop the world's most powerful AI supercomputer in supercomputer in Japan.
But more importantly, the Softbank Group wants to build a completely new infrastructure for AI in Japan. It should be noted that the Softbank Group is one of the largest telecom companies in Japan, which is important for the next point. Softbank and NVIDIA have succeeded in creating a telecommunications network on which 5G and AI data streams can run simultaneously, which is also made possible by the fact that the 5G networks are usually only a maximum of one third full. one third and the last two thirds are now to be used for AI applications. Softbank would like to use all of its 5G base stations for these so-called AI-RAN servers and hopes that each installation will generate a gain of at least 219%. Overall, the aim is to build an AI infrastructure covering the entire country, which can be used for numerous applications such as supporting autonomous driving. Universities are also to be actively involved in the further development of the system and new AI applications develop new AI applications. The system has been tested and works. This represents a completely new way for telecoms companies to monetize their networks.
Jensen Huang also said that about Softbank and Japan as a whole: "Japan has a long history of pioneering technological innovations with global impact," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. "With SoftBank's significant investment in Nvidia's full-stack AI, Omniverse and 5G AI-RAN platforms, Japan is leaping into the AI industrial revolution to become a global leader, driving a new era of growth across the telecommunications, transportation, robotics and healthcare industries in ways that will greatly benefit humankind in the age of AI."
Other things about the Softbank Group:
-Softbank owns the British chip designer $ARM (+2.84%) (which, by the way, is still more valuable than the parent company), whose chip designs have a monopolistic position in more and more areas
-This year they acquired the AI chip manufacturer Graphcorewhich is also British. Graphcore was touted early on as an NVIDIA competitor and, according to their own statements, can keep up technologically, but they ran out of money along the way, which led to Softbank acquiring the former hopeful at a huge discount. huge discount at a huge discount. Graphcore could become even more interesting in the future, as it is assumed that Softbank will merge ARM and Graphcore to jointly develop AI chips develop AI chips together
-Many of Softbank Vision Fund's investments are also slowly moving in the right direction, which earned them a profit of 7.7 billion dollars in the last quarter. Especially in India there were many successful IPOs of Softbank holdings. The profit was 5 times higher than analysts had expected
-As I have written a lot about $GRAB (-10.23%) I want to note, even if it is not so relevant now, that Softbank also has about 10% in Grab in Grab
Conclusion: Overall, I see Masayoshi Son's vision and think the conglomerate's reorientation towards AI & chips is a very interesting development. Softbank can become the most important AI company in Japan and also get involved internationally through its many holdings, many of which will be added in the coming years. Masayoshi Son is just getting warmed up and has a lot of cash to invest. In addition, he is once again looking to attract substantial capital (around 70 billion) from the Middle East for a new project in the field of AI chips (another topic). Who knows what will become of Graphcore, ARM or the chip venture Rapidus (another topic). In any case, all of this promises huge returns, which currently make the share appear significantly undervalued.
But the important thing now is results. After all the super positive news such as the big quarterly profit or the announcement of the AI-RAN servers and supercomputers, you would think that the share should have benefited from this. But investors will probably remain skeptical for the time being and wait until the first milestones have been reached.
I believe that Masayoshi Son's strategy will work out with the support of his friend Jensen Huang. I could really have written a lot more about this, but I've been writing about it for a long time now and I think I've gotten the message across :)
