Masayoshi Son, SoftBank: Nuclear fusion energy is the key to the future development of artificial intelligence.

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday that in the near future, nuclear fusion technology will provide the most realistic solution to meet the increasing power demand of artificial intelligence data centers. Son said that natural gas currently meets most of the power needs of data centers. However, he predicted that nuclear fusion will also play an important role, and forecasted that by 2040, global data centers will require a capacity of 3 terawatts. However, he said that nuclear fusion technology still faces many technological and economic challenges in order to become a viable energy source. "Fusion will become a major source of a cheaper, cleaner, and safer new energy source on Earth," the 68-year-old Son said at SoftBank's annual event in Tokyo. "Is it really appropriate to use so much natural gas for electricity generation now? I believe that fusion will replace it in 15 years." Son believes that the huge costs of building data center infrastructure will eventually pay off, and he dismissed doubts from the outside world about whether investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence hardware will bring returns. He said, "Asking whether artificial intelligence is a bubble is an extremely stupid question," only those who do not understand or fully utilize artificial intelligence would ask such a question.