SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said Monday that the artificial intelligence revolution will be roughly 50 times larger than the dot-com boom [1].
This projection suggests an economic shift that dwarfs previous technological cycles, signaling a massive reallocation of global capital toward AI infrastructure and services.
During an interview with CNBC, Son said the current era is the most significant technological revolution humanity has ever experienced [1]. He said that the scale, speed of adoption, and overall economic impact of AI will far exceed the internet boom of the early 2000s [1].
"The AI revolution will be 50 times bigger than the dot‑com boom," Son said [1]. He said the impact is likely more than 10 times, and probably 50 times, bigger than the previous era [2].
To support this vision, SoftBank is pursuing aggressive infrastructure projects. The company has planned an AI infrastructure investment in France totaling €75 billion [3]. This initiative includes the development of AI data-center capacity reaching five GW in France [3].
Son said AI will dwarf the dot-com era by a factor of about 50 [3]. This perspective aligns with his history of high-stakes investing in transformative technologies, though the scale of the current AI shift is unprecedented in his view [1].
“The AI revolution will be 50 times bigger than the dot‑com boom.”
Son's projection indicates that SoftBank intends to move beyond software investments and into the heavy physical infrastructure—such as power-intensive data centers—required to sustain generative AI. By comparing the current cycle to the dot-com boom but scaling it 50-fold, he is signaling to markets that the total addressable market for AI is significantly larger than the entire internet economy of two decades ago.
