Masayoshi Son
Masayoshi Son | |
|---|---|
| Born | Masayoshi Yasumoto August 11, 1957 Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan |
| Occupation(s) | Businessman, investor, philanthropist |
| Known for | Founder, chairman, and CEO of SoftBank Group; chairman of Arm Holdings and Stargate LLC |
Masayoshi Son (, , born Masayoshi Yasumoto, ; August 11, 1957) is a prominent Japanese businessman, investor, and philanthropist. Of Zainichi Korean descent, he is the founder, chairman, and CEO of SoftBank Group (SBG), a holding company specializing in technology investments. Additionally, he serves as chairman of UK-based Arm Holdings and US-based Stargate LLC.
Son rose to prominence through his involvement in PC software distribution, publishing related to computing, and telecommunications within Japan from the 1980s through the early 2000s. His initial $20 million stake in Alibaba Group in 2000 appreciated dramatically to an estimated $75 billion by 2014 following Alibaba’s IPO, significantly enhancing SoftBank’s financial position. By 2018, SoftBank’s ownership of approximately 27% of Alibaba had grown to a valuation near $132 billion, factoring in subsequent acquisitions after 2000. Son’s strategic shift of SoftBank from a telecommunications operator to an investment management firm positioned him as a notable global equity investor known for ambitious approaches—some of which resulted in substantial losses, especially with the launch of the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds.
In 2013, Son was ranked 45th on Forbes’‘ list of the World’s Most Powerful People and received the Entrepreneur of the Year award at The Asian Awards in 2017. As of May 2025, he holds the 65th position on the Forbes ranking of The World's Billionaires and is placed 177th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He once held the record for the largest personal wealth decline (exceeding $59 billion during the dot-com crash in 2000), a record later overtaken by Elon Musk. In 2024, Son was named among Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in AI.
Early life and education
Born Masayoshi Yasumoto on August 11, 1957, in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Son comes from a family of Zainichi Korean heritage. His grandfather, Son Jong-kyung, relocated to Japan during its colonial rule over Korea and worked as a miner. Son’s father, Son Sam-heon, operated an illicit sake business that generated enough income to purchase their first automobile and later move to a more affluent neighborhood to support Son’s schooling. Although Son appeared ethnically Japanese at school, he endured bullying and discrimination because of his Korean background.
Inspired by Den Fujita, founder of McDonald’s Japan, Son persistently sought an audience with him. Fujita advised him to pursue studies in English and computer science in the United States. Acting on this guidance, Son left high school in Japan at age 16 and relocated to Oakland, California. There he rapidly mastered English, completed high school within three weeks, and graduated with an economics degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1980.
During his university years, Son initiated multiple business ventures: he created an electronic translator that was sold to Sharp Corporation for $1.7 million; imported secondhand video game machines from Japan generating $1.5 million; and founded Unison World, a video game company later sold for $2 million and acquired by Kyocera.
After returning to Japan, he chose to use his Korean surname Son professionally instead of Yasumoto despite opposition from family members concerned about ethnic visibility. This choice made him a pioneering figure for ethnic Korean youth living in Japan.
SoftBank
Masayoshi Son is the founder, chief executive officer, and principal shareholder of SoftBank, possessing a 34.2% ownership stake as of December 2022. He launched the enterprise in 1981, initially focusing on software distribution and publishing computer-related books.
SoftBank Corp.
Son held the position of CEO at SoftBank Corp., the mobile communications branch of SoftBank Group, until stepping down in 2021.
Yahoo! and Alibaba
As an early backer of internet companies, Son acquired shares in Yahoo! in 1995 and invested $20 million into Alibaba in 1999. SoftBank, his investment vehicle, controlled a 29.5% interest in Alibaba, which was valued at approximately $108.7 billion as of October 2018. Although SoftBank’s stake in Yahoo! decreased to 7%, Son retained authority over Yahoo! BB, which became Japan’s foremost broadband provider after its acquisition of Japan Telecom. By June 2020, Son resigned from Alibaba’s board, and by 2023, SoftBank had divested most of its Alibaba holdings.
Arm Holdings
In July 2016, shortly after the United Kingdom's Brexit referendum, SoftBank declared its intention to purchase Arm Holdings for £23.4 billion ($31.4 billion), representing the largest acquisition of a European technology firm at that time. The transaction was finalized in September 2016 for about £24 billion ($34 billion).
In 2020, SoftBank agreed to sell Arm to U.S.-based semiconductor company Nvidia through a cash and stock arrangement initially valued at $40 billion. Due to Nvidia’s stock appreciation, the deal's worth approached $66 billion by 2022, potentially becoming the largest transaction in the semiconductor industry. SoftBank emphasized the combined entity’s capacity to lead in artificial intelligence innovation. However, the Nvidia acquisition was terminated in February 2022 following antitrust objections from regulators in the United States and European Union.
Subsequently, Arm confidentially submitted paperwork for an initial public offering in the U.S. during 2023, targeting a capital raise between $8 billion and $10 billion. At that time, valuations for the UK-based chip designer ranged from $30 billion to $70 billion.
Sprint Corporation
During the 2010s, Masayoshi Son acquired a controlling interest in Sprint Corporation through SoftBank, initially holding 76% and eventually increasing ownership to roughly 84%. In 2020, Sprint merged with T-Mobile US in an all-stock transaction valued at $26 billion. By 2021, SoftBank Group owned a 4.5% stake in Deutsche Telekom AG (T-Mobile’s parent company) and proceeded to sell its T-Mobile US shares to Deutsche Telekom.
Solar power
In response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011, Son publicly criticized nuclear energy and invested heavily in Japan’s national solar power infrastructure. In March 2018, he announced plans to fund a 200GW solar energy project in Saudi Arabia aligned with Vision 2030 objectives. By July that year, Son committed to financing most of a proposed 100GW portion within India’s broader renewable energy expansion plan aiming for 275GW by 2027.
Vision Fund
Launched in 2017 by SoftBank Group, the $100 billion Vision Fund focuses on investing in cutting-edge technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT). By 2019, it sought to increase its AI-related investments from approximately 70 companies to around 125 while also targeting sectors such as real estate, transportation, and retail. Founder Masayoshi Son prioritized close collaboration with portfolio company CEOs to foster synergies across investments. He envisioned raising $100 billion funds every few years with annual investments near $50 billion. A second Vision Fund was initiated in 2019 with a target size of $108 billion—of which SoftBank contributed $38 billion—but it was later reduced due to limited external investor participation.
By 2020, the initial fund had invested in 88 firms including Coupang, Didi, DoorDash, Fanatics, Grab, Oyo Rooms, Paytm, Uber, and WeWork. Nonetheless, the fund encountered significant challenges exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and regulatory pressures within China that exposed vulnerabilities across its portfolio. Son gained recognition as a stock market investor following his early $20 million investment in Alibaba around 2000; however, he missed earlier opportunities with companies like Amazon and Tesla. Despite assembling an unprecedented nearly $100 billion fund dedicated to tech startups, by 2021 Son faced difficulties persuading investors due to substantial losses linked to WeWork, OneWeb, Wirecard, OYO Rooms, Katerra, and Greensill Capital. Concerns over tax obligations, risk exposure, and historical performance contributed to SoftBank’s stock trading below asset value.
Toward late 2021, Son accelerated deployment within Vision Fund 2 by expanding its portfolio fivefold over nine months while decreasing average investment size per company from $943 million to $192 million. For the fiscal year ending March 2022, Vision Fund reported a record loss of ¥3.5 trillion ($27.4 billion) amid declines in technology stock valuations. Impulsive investments into overvalued startups like Klarna led to significant write-downs; meanwhile some competitors profited by exiting earlier positions. In August 2022 Son expressed regret over the fund’s outcomes; major financial media characterized Vision Fund as a "failed experiment" and labeled SoftBank a "major loser," underscoring shortcomings within Son’s business approach.
By November 2022 Masayoshi Son personally owed SoftBank approximately $4.7 billion due to mounting losses on technology investments that rendered his stake in Vision Fund 2 effectively worthless. This debt increased to $5.1 billion by February 2023 amid scrutiny over corporate governance related to side agreements intended to boost his compensation; Son denied any conflict of interest allegations. As of March 2023—following Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse—over one-third of Son’s shares in SoftBank were reportedly pledged as collateral for margin loans raising concerns about possible financial distress affecting both SoftBank Group and Son individually.
Stargate
In January 2025, Son was appointed chairman of The Stargate Project, a collaborative American AI infrastructure initiative established by SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle Corporation, and MGX.
Personal life
Son met his spouse, Masami Ohno—daughter of a distinguished Japanese physician—during their studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The couple wed in 1979 and have two daughters. He lives in Tokyo in a three-level residence valued at approximately US$85 million, which includes a golf training facility equipped with technology that replicates playing conditions from courses worldwide. Additionally, he possesses a $117 million estate near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California. Son is the owner of the SoftBank Hawks, a professional baseball franchise in Japan.
He is the second eldest among four brothers; his youngest sibling, Taizo Son, is a serial entrepreneur and investor known for founding GungHo Online Entertainment and the venture capital firm Mistletoe.
At age 16, Son relocated to the United States for his secondary and higher education, opting to retain his Korean family name. He has remarked that remaining in Japan might have led him to adopt a more conservative mindset, contrasting with his current entrepreneurial style.
See also
External links
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- Lionel Barber, "Gambling Man: The Wild Ride of Japan’s Masayoshi Son" (Biography published by Penguin, 3 October 2024)