Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Backs Perplexity AI at $3B Valuation

Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank Group (OTC:SFTBY) (GB:0L7L) is expanding its presence in the AI sector. Through its Vision Fund 2, the company is investing in AI startup Perplexity AI, which has been valued at $3 billion.

SoftBank’s Strategic Investments in AI

According to Bloomberg, SoftBank is pouring about $10-$20 million into Perplexity as part of a $250 million funding round. Perplexity is widely seen as a potential rival to the current search king, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Perplexity, which calls itself an “answer engine,” has previously raised funds from top tech names, including NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Earlier, SoftBank also invested nearly $200 million into Tempus AI. The latter helps deliver better treatments to patients by analyzing medical data. Moreover, SoftBank is launching a joint venture with Tempus AI to provide precision medicine services in Japan.

Masayoshi Son’s AI Vision

But, as always, Son’s AI vision is far more ambitious than one would initially expect. Son wants to create AI that is thousands of times smarter than a human. Speaking at SoftBank’s shareholder meeting on Friday, Son proclaimed that he woke up with an epiphany and the answer was: he was born to advance AI. Earlier this year, Son was said to be aiming to set up a new $100 billion AI venture, dubbed Izanagi.

Importantly, SoftBank has been shoring up its cash reserves for a while now, and the company is wading headfirst into AI. The company’s share price has already rallied by nearly 41% over the past six months, and its future outlays in AI could act as a catalyst for the stock.

Is SoftBank Stock Bullish or Bearish?

Meanwhile, analyst coverage on SoftBank remains scant at present. However, the TipRanks Technical Analysis tool is flashing a Buy signal on the stock on a monthly time frame. This could mean further Bullish action in the stock.

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