SoftBank CEO says he had a crisis that left him in tears for days and made him question his achievements

• SoftBank's CEO Masayoshi Son says he had a crisis of confidence that left him in tears for days.
• The FT reported that Son said he broke down for a few days and questioned his achievements.

SoftBank's eccentric CEO Masayoshi Son said he had a crisis of confidence in October that left him in tears for days.

Son made the comments, which were reported by The Financial Times, during the company's annual general meeting in Tokyo. The publication reported that the CEO said he broke down for a few days and questioned his achievements as an entrepreneur.

He added that he later realized he wanted to become "an architect, to design the future of humanity."

Son has a reputation for being an unusual CEO. He is known for his unorthodox approach to earnings calls, which have featured drawings, art, history, and mysterious equations. He has also reportedly compared himself to Jesus and Yoda.

His company, however, has had a bad year. SoftBank struggled to turn a profit despite a focus on AI. In May, the company's investment unit reported an annual loss of $32 billion.

Son, who said he can't stop using OpenAI's viral ChatGPT, has been bullish on AI for some time. During an interview with CNBC in 2019, he said he believed AI would completely change the way humans lived "within 30 years."

When asked about Vision Fund's AI investment focus during the event, Son said, per the FT: "I regret big mistakes." But he added that out of roughly 500 companies the fund had invested in, "more than several" were going to be big successes.

Representatives for SoftBank did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.