At the 2026 Yabuli Forum Summer Annual Meeting, held from September 4 to 6 in Chengdu, Sichuan, under the theme "Corporate Innovation and Cycle Transition," Song Anlan, Managing Partner of SoftBank China Capital, shared his insights on the current state of the artificial intelligence industry. He noted that while bubbles are emerging in the AI sector, this phenomenon is actually beneficial for early-stage investors, as it can spur the creation of more high-quality startup projects, which poses no harm to them.
Song explained that the firm's investment coverage spans a wide range of sectors, despite the limited size of its funds. He mentioned that the firm participated in a significant investment round for OpenAI, which he described as a large-scale project. However, he expressed regret that SoftBank China Capital failed to secure an entry ticket into the country's leading large model enterprises.
He highlighted embodied intelligence as a key area of focus for the firm. In his view, China holds unique advantages in this field, particularly in the integration of hardware and software, which is a long-standing strength of the domestic industry. Currently, China is already in a leading position globally in this sector. "I am firmly optimistic about China's leadership in this track. We have completed a full-chain layout around embodied intelligence, covering everything from development tools and core sensors to application scenarios, with our investment portfolio spanning multiple links," he said.
Song also predicted that the future bottleneck for AI development will likely not be in computing chips themselves, but rather in the energy supply for data centers. Consequently, he sees enormous opportunities in the energy storage sector that supports data centers. He pointed out that overseas data centers have experienced fire incidents multiple times, and domestically, safety issues in energy storage have also been a concern, leading to extremely high safety standards for energy storage equipment in this context. China has already developed advanced technologies in this area, and the firm has made numerous early-stage investments in directions such as solid-state batteries and safe sodium-ion batteries, with related products already beginning to be deployed in data center scenarios.
Overall, Song emphasized that the firm adheres to a value-investing philosophy, avoiding blind pursuit of highs or following market trends. "We persist in early-stage investments in quality targets, continuously increasing our stake as companies develop well. When the fundamentals of later-stage projects are clear and certainty is strong, we also choose to participate at appropriate times," he concluded.