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SoftBank's Masayoshi Son Sees Nuclear Fusion as Key Power Source for AI Data Centers

July 13, 2026 at 23:16 EDT

Infra & Chips
Sales & Business

SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son said nuclear fusion will become the most realistic way to power the surging electricity demands of artificial-intelligence data centers in the "not-so-distant future," even as the technology remains years away from commercial deployment.

SoftBank World · July 14

Son Bets on Fusion to Feed AI's Hunger for Power

SoftBank's Masayoshi Son calls nuclear fusion the most realistic long-term answer to soaring AI data-center demand — even as the technology stays years from commercial reality, leaving gas, nuclear and renewables to bridge the gap.

3 TW

Global data-center capacity Son projects the world will need by 2040

$500B

Reported scale of the OpenAI-led Stargate build-out SoftBank backs

€75B

Planned France investment for ~5 GW of data-center capacity

Data-center power demand is climbing fast

Global consumption (TWh) — IEA estimate, driven heavily by AI

415

2024 TWh

→

945

2030 TWh

Roughly a 2× jump in six years — the constraint Son is trying to solve.

The Vision

Fusion — the process that powers the sun — becomes the central power source for AI in the "not-so-distant future." Some developers target the late 2030s and 2040s.

The Reality

Fusion is not yet commercialized for electricity. Major technical and financial hurdles remain — no timeline, output or cost specified. Gas still carries the load today.

The near-term picture stays conventional. Even as fusion draws growing interest, the U.S. alone shows the pressure: Department of Energy projections put domestic data-center demand at

176

2023 TWh

325–580

2028 TWh

Whether fusion arrives in time to relieve the strain hinges on breakthroughs still ahead.

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