By Gareth Corfield

Mankind will be overtaken by artificial intelligence, the chief executive of one of the world’s biggest investment funds has warned. 

Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank, said the tech investment fund, which owns Cambridge chip designer Arm, will pursue an aggressive growth strategy centered on AI despite reporting losses of $27bn (£21bn) earlier this year.

He said: “What I am interested in most, what I am working on most, is the AI revolution. I believe that mankind is going to be exceeded by computer or AI.

“In the past few years, we focused on being [in] ‘defence’. Three years ago, we didn’t have a lot of cash on hand. But because we have been in defence mode, we have built our cash on hand to five trillion yen (£27.6bn).”

SoftBank’s fortunes are seen as a mirror for the global tech economy and Mr Son, who has been described as “the Bill Gates of Japan”, as one of its key figureheads.

Yet the investment fund’s bets on emerging technologies have resulted in extremely high losses for more than a year, raising questions about Mr Son’s leadership.

He addressed these by saying: “I’ve made many, many mistakes in my AI investments, some of them embarrassing. But among the many failures, there are a number of buds that will blossom very soon.”

SoftBank acquired Arm, the Cambridge-headquartered computer chip designer, for £24bn in 2016. Arm is due to be listed on the public markets later this year as part of the fund’s drive for growth.

Mr Son snubbed Rishi Sunak, however, by ignoring the Government’s overtures and announcing plans to list Arm in New York rather than London.

It is thought to be seeking a valuation that could be as high as $70bn for Arm, whose chips designs power most of the world’s top smartphones.

If Arm is not listed by September it faces being saddled with as much as $8.5bn in SoftBank-linked debt, The Telegraph revealed earlier this year.

SoftBank has borrowed heavily against Arm’s shares last year and has pledged 75pc of the Cambridge company’s stock as collateral.

Market turmoil including stubbornly high inflation have pushed back the planned listing of Arm from March this year.