The AI revolution is 50 times bigger than the Dotcom revolution in the 2000s, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son told CNBC Monday.
"I think this is like more than 10x, probably 50x bigger than dotcom," Son told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal in Paris, a day after the company announced that it's investing 75 billion euros ($87 billion) to build AI infrastructure in France, including 5 GW of AI data center capacity.
"Even dotcom there was a bubble and burst, but then right after that, the peak of the dotcom bubble, the year 2000, was not really a peak. It was like a small hill. It went down, but then it went much, much bigger."
Softbank's investment, which marks the company's largest AI infrastructure investment in Europe, involves building 3.1 GW of AI data centers in the northern Hauts-de-France region by 2031, including in Dunkirk, Bosquel and Bouchain.
"It's a massive size of investment coming," Son told reporters during a Monday press briefing with French President Emmanuel Macron. "We are doing that in the U.S. already, we are expanding a lot in the U.S., so we have the momentum, which we can make France the center of Europe, and Europe needs this kind of AI technology."
The Japanese investment giant is partnering with French engineering company Schneider Electric to establish a large-scale industrial production hub in Dunkirk as part of the broader buildout.
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