Masayoshi Son and Sam Altman: The demand for AI is limitless, with plans to deploy 1 billion AI agents and create a dedicated ecosystem.

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son and OpenAI founder Sam Altman discussed the future of AI via video at the "SoftBank World Conference" held on 7/16, (SoftBank World 2025). Both believe that the demand for AI is fundamentally endless, data centers will only continue to increase, and AI Bots will enter a cycle of "self-evolution." The discussion focused on the explosive usage brought by the drop in AI costs, the ability of AI Bots to self-replicate, and SoftBank's future outlook to deploy 1 billion AI agents.

AI will not have diminishing marginal returns; lowering costs will lead to a surge in usage.

According to Bloomberg, Masayoshi Son was the first to ask at the conference whether there would be diminishing marginal returns in AI computing scale. In response, Altman immediately replied that demand actually has no limits. He gave an example:

"When we drive the cost of AI down further, usage will soar. If we make AI ten times cheaper, people will want to use it thirty times, or even more. The demand for AI in this world is that enormous."

The consensus between the two is simple: the cheaper and more widespread AI becomes, the more humanity's demand will be inseparable.

AI combined with Bots, entering a self-evolution cycle.

The next two discussed "self-evolution." Altman mentioned that in the future, robots will be able to create new robots themselves, forming a cycle of accelerated iteration.

Masayoshi Son immediately added that AI Bots are not just self-learning, but can also generate new Bots to assist in work, increasing efficiency over time. He even proposed that SoftBank aims to "deploy 1 billion AI Bots" within the group this year and create a dedicated AI operating system to enable these Bots to work collaboratively.

SoftBank and OpenAI join forces to advance enterprise-level AI.

The two also recalled that in February this year, SoftBank Corp., a telecommunications subsidiary of SoftBank, and OpenAI each held a 50% stake in the joint venture SB OpenAI Japan. The main purpose is to introduce their own AI product, Cristal intelligence, to large enterprises in Japan, allowing companies to train and fine-tune AI within their own IT systems, creating customized AI automation workflows and generating new business models. The goal is to build a Japan-specific enterprise-level AI ecosystem and then replicate the experience globally.

Masayoshi Son also revealed that SoftBank Corp. will fully adopt OpenAI tools, and this AI service alone will cost 3 billion dollars a year, essentially treating OpenAI as a core technology supplier. Below are the roles played by SoftBank and its subsidiaries in collaboration with OpenAI:

OpenAI: Providing advanced AI technology and research成果.

SoftBank Group: Invests and promotes the adoption of AI in its subsidiaries.

SoftBank Corp.: Executing AI deployment, sales, and technical engineering support.

Arm: A UK semiconductor design company under SoftBank Group, providing high-performance computing platforms needed for AI, covering from cloud to edge computing.

This article Son Masayoshi and Sam Altman: The demand for AI is limitless, deploying 1 billion AI agents, creating a dedicated ecosystem first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.