--- title: "Insiders at SoftBank Worry Their CEO Is Getting Conned by Sam Altman" description: "Insiders at SoftBank are reportedly jittery that their founder Masayoshi Son is being taken for a ride by OpenAI's Sam Altman." date: "2026-05-23" modified: "2026-05-23" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/insiders-softbank-sam-altman" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Finance" - "Future Society" - "Investing" - "OpenAI" --- # Insiders at SoftBank Worry Their CEO Is Getting Conned by Sam Altman ![A stylized collage features a Sam Altman in a suit and tie, holding a bottle, with a blue circle behind his head. The background is a crumpled orange surface with a black grid overlay. To the right, there is a faint outline of a door labeled "Stairs."]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images* The rise of AI is many things: technological, sociological, political, even teleological. But perhaps above all, it's financial. When OpenAI released ChatGPT back in late 2022, it quick picked up enormous user traction — and moneymen across the tech industry immediately started scheming about how to cash in from the rush of interest. The model they coalesced around hinges on gigantic investments in computing infrastructure to power the tech. It's high risk and high reward: in their telling, the investments will pay off massively as the tech matures to automate huge swathes of the labor market, but [some critics fear]() it'll never generate enough revenue to justify the incredible spending. Nobody is more exposed than the Japanese investment company SoftBank, which has poured an eye-watering $60 billion into OpenAI over the past few years. According to [explosive new reporting by *Bloomberg*](), even certain insiders at the company are rattled. Viziers of founder Masayoshi Son have privately questioned what will happen if the Sam Altman-led company can't pull off its grand promises — and Son's reaction has apparently been so "brusque," in the publication's wording, that they eventually gave up. What's clear from the reporting is that Altman has done what he does best: turned Son into a true believer in his vision of computer superintelligence that causes profound shifts for the entire course of civilization. Habib Imam, a former SoftBank insider who's now at Menlo Park Capital, told *Bloomberg* that it's fundamentally a "bet on a worldview about AGI," adding that "you can't hedge a worldview." The reality is that Son's track record is dodgy. He made a series of canny bets during the company's early history, then bet big on the Chinese retailer Alibaba, netting immense returns. But in recent years, the company is probably best known for Son's dogged financial support of WeWork, the would-be coworking space startup with an Altman-like charismatic founder named Adam Neuman — and which imploded in spectacular fashion in 2019. The question essentially comes down to a Rorschach test: is Altman a visionary ushering in a new world order, or is he a con man taking Son — and many other financial luminaries around the world — for a wild ride that'll soon come crashing back to reality? No matter how remote the chances, the consequences of the latter scenario could be catastrophic. SoftBank has already sold top assets, including shares in fellow AI company Nvidia, to pay for its OpenAI commitment. And insiders are reportedly jittery about signs that OpenAI is losing ground, with its defectors who jumped ship and started Anthropic now attracting the most buzz in the industry. For their part, both companies downplayed *Bloomberg*'s reporting. "SoftBank and OpenAI have built a strong strategic partnership grounded in a shared view of where AI is headed and what it will require at global scale," Softbank told the outlet. OpenAI said the two companies have a "great relationship" and are "among each other’s closest collaborators." **More on Sam Altman:** *[Sam Altman Faces Nightmare Questions in Cross-Examination]()* ***[]()*** ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()