The recent visit of billionaire investor Masayoshi Son to India is marked as important for the country’s tech space. He met Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with 20 top Indian startup founders. The meeting comes at a time when several portfolio companies of SoftBank including Swiggy, Ola Electric and FirstCry have made their public market debuts.

Son has invested $15 billion in India and is known for his bold vision as well as support of disruptive technologies. His emphasis on artificial intelligence (AI) was the agenda of discussions. He is betting big on AI as it is going to be the next big frontier in global innovation. His message to the founders was clear that AI is not a short-term project. He encouraged them to think for a long-term goal. The advice is important for Indian startups as many of companies are at the forefront of innovation. The companies are adopting AI in a meaningful as well as long-term way.

AI is rapidly changing industries and Son believes that capital expenditure required for its development will be massive. He pointed out the importance of chip design as growth of AI depends on supporting hardware too apart from software.

The meeting was highly meaningful for startup founders as SoftBank is providing an opportunity to think big in AI. India is sure to become a key player in the global tech economy in the near future.

The Softbank meeting with Indian startups is a reminder of enormous potential the Indian startup ecosystem has. It is believed that the young entrepreneurs here can lead the global AI space. The next decade could be India’s time to shine and AI could be at the heart of that transformation.