[27], Son used his family's adopted Japanese surname for much of his childhood. That could be seen as more of a commitment to overhauling the struggling carrier. Eventually they met Son in an intimate sitting room where a two-seater couch faces a couple ofchairs and a small coffee table. He is known as the third generation of Zainichi Korean. He has also bought a home near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California, that cost him $117 million. Hes a very aggressive, risk-taking, entrepreneurial person. Note: VirtualGlobetrotting is an entertainment website is and is not associated But Sons future as an investor may depend on proving, as he once put it, that his success with Alibaba was not just one lucky hit.. [31] Son's holding company SoftBank owns 29.5% of Alibaba, which is worth around $108.7 billion as of 23 October 2018. He effortlessly straddles the Japanese and Western business worlds, a quality that stood him in good stead while making business deals with his foreign counterparts. 126 ratings11 reviews. Softbankbecame the primary shareholder in Yahoo, and set up Yahoo Japan, its Japanese subsidiary. Fujita was the founder of McDonalds Japan, and had written a book that Son admired. Son was a child when his Korean parents moved to Japan, and he grew up poor. I walk into this immaculate and impressive home and manage to almost break a chandelier.. Before I told anybody else, our stock started crashing We almost went bankrupt. [35], In July 2016, SoftBank announced plans to acquire Arm Holdings for 23.4 billion ($31.4 billion) which would be the largest ever purchase of a European technology company. And Masayoshi Son was similarly prescient about Alibaba, offering a big sum to its CEO Jack Ma when he hadn't even asked for it. Son then invested, While Son didnt have a formal education in engineering or technology, he appeared to intuitively undersand how to sell it. Son is a Japanese millionaire but he has lost the highest amount of money in the history of investment. Owner: reportedly Masayoshi Son, worth $8.6 billionPurchase Price: $117.5 million in 2012The most expensive home sale on record includes a 9,000-square foot neoclassical house, a 1,117-square foot . In Japan, his father ran a video game parlour, so he imported early consoles of Pac Man and Space Invaders to the US, and leased them to local bars and restaurants on a profit sharing basis. [50] But the amount was scaled down due to lack of investing partners beyond Softbank Group itself and Masayoshi Son. Masayoshi Son is a Japanese Entrepreneur, Investor, and Philanthropist. [20], Son graduated from Berkeley with a B.A. Due to this, he holds the second position on the list of Japans richest people. Masayoshi Son and Jack Ma shaking hands at a forum in Tokyo in 2019. [38][39], In the 2010s, through his holdings in SoftBank, Son bought a 76% share in Sprint. China's Ant group and Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank, two of the largest investors in Paytm's parent One97 Communications, are looking at reducing their holding in the fintech major. Investors in Son's Vision Funds include Apple, Qualcomm, Foxconn, the family office of billionaire Larry. Masayoshi Son, chairman of Sprint and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., recently bought a house near Sprints headquarters, a move seen as a commitment to overhaul the struggling carrier. He was an early investor in many internet firms, such as Yahoo! This third-generation Zainichi Korean is also famous for his philanthropic work. But he made another move that would define his career for the next decade he invested $30 million in a little-known Chinese startup called Alibaba. He effortlessly straddles the Japanese and Western business worlds, a quality that stood him in good stead while making business deals with his foreign counterparts. It made him inclined toward technology and he later became a tech entrepreneur and an investor. The 2000 dot-com crash hit Son particularly hard. Its certainly not news that one investor can push another aside, but most of them cant brandish a $100 billion checkbook. He often quotes Yoda, passionately prepares for the singularity, and has been known to make big bets on companies based upon what he once called his sense of smell. He plays an active role in SoftBanks investment decisions, and Aron recalled being told that Son has final say on each Vision Fund deal. Sonbet $374 million on Yahoo between 1995 and 1998, and at its peak, his investment had led to a 50-fold gain. [4] A controversial figure,[5][6][7] Son has been called a gambler,[8] mocked by some specialized media[9] and dubbed the worst investor ever.[10][11]. anonymously (anonymous users cannot post links). Sign-up for simple yet meaningful ways to support the API community - delivered straight to your inbox. (C) OfficeChai 2020. I just think $100 billion is a bridge too far., Son laid out his plan for crossing that bridge during the shareholder meeting in June. After a severe devaluation of SoftBank's equity, Son was forced to focus his attention on Yahoo! After graduating from the University of California, he started a Unison in Oakland which was later handed over to a Japanese Electronic company Kyocera. And all of his investments can be traced back to the pay-out he received from US computing firm Sharp almost 40 years ago after selling one of his . The buy price, initially set at $40bn (cash and Nvidia shares) when first announced in September 2020, had risen closer to an estimated $66bn by 2022 given the intervening hike in Nvidia's stock that would make this deal the biggest deal in the semiconductor market. Facebook (Meta) Success Storyof Biggest Social Networking Site! Matt Barnard remembers time moving slowly in that side room as he awaited his chance to convince a man he described as larger than life to bet on his indoor farming startup, Plenty. Son is now worth about $15 billion-- and, remarkably, maintains his tremendous appetite for risk and long-term thinking. Masayoshi Son has now lost more than $4 billion (532.4 billion) on a series of side deals he set up at SoftBank Group to boost his compensation, a painful blow triggered by . 12-week accelerator for API founders offering masterclasses, 1:1 advising, and 0,000 investment. [43] In March 2018, it was announced that Son was investing in the biggest ever solar project, a 200GW development planned for Saudi Arabia as part of its Vision 2030. Follow the community book club for monthly book picks that help APIs better understand their identity and culture. A 3rd generation "Zainichi Korean", he naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1990. and/or its affiliates. Privacy Policy. He is the founder of SoftBank. In December 2016 at Trump Tower, Son promised that SoftBank would lead $50 billion in investments in U.S. companies and create 50,000 jobs. Son was named the world's 45th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People. As of August 2014, Forbes ranks him as the richest Japanese and sixth-richest Asian, worth an estimated $17.5 billion. From the start, Son focused on how he could help change society with technology, said the longtime SoftBank employee. Mozer patented the device, and together they made $1 million (in todays money) selling their invention to Sharp. He is the Chairman of the UK-based Arm Holdings. He did a great job creating the baby. When the Chinese e-commerce company went public in 2014, SoftBanks $20 million investment was worth nearly $75 billion. But for all too many of them, Sons team arguably overpaid. The 2000 dot-com crash hit Son particularly hard. Son likes to say he is preparing for the day when all sectors of society and industry will be redefined by super-intelligent machines. Announcing the deal, SoftBank said the combination of Arm and Nvidia would create a computing company "that will lead the era" of artificial intelligence. Plus, 60% off clearance with American Eagle promo code, Receive 15% Off DIY Online Tax Filing Products with H&R Block. Although Softbanks Yahoo! | Sons net worth was soaring. Updated: 28 Feb 2023, 12:10 PM IST The Economist. His father and other Koreans illegally built their houses on land that was owned by Japan National Railways, which caused them trouble with the authorities. [91] He lives in Tokyo in a three-story mansion that is valued at $50 million and that has a golf range with technology to mimic the weather conditions and temperature of the worlds top golf courses. Masayoshi Son is now personally on the hook for about $4.7 billion on side deals he set up at SoftBank Group Corp. to boost his compensation, after mounting . But a quick payday from a blockbuster IPO falls short of Sons towering rhetoric. He likes to joke he has had more failures than anyone else, but has learned from all of them, says Chris Lane, an analyst with Bernstein who tracks SoftBank. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. Son is also remarkably comfortable taking large, risky bets, and has a keen eye for the future. For this action and other similar ones, Son is considered to be a role model for ethnic Korean children in Japan. Son capitalized on the rise of personal computing in the 1980s and bet so heavily on the dot-com boom of the 1990s that he is said to have at one point owned 25%of the Internet. If that kind of timeline seems odd, well, Son is something of an eccentric. The Vision Funds have invested in over 100 companies, including ride-share firm Grab, Korean e-commerce leader Coupang and India's Paytm. There's a $60 billion reason why SoftBank Group Corp. founder Masayoshi Son might feel a little down. He doesnt say much. SoftBank has been deploying more than $130 billion of investment capital on a bewildering array of startups across the globe. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. The Wall Street Journal reports that Son, chairman of Sprint and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp., has purchased a house in the Kansas City area. Son repeatedly called Fujitas assistants, asking for a meeting, but his requests were ignored successful businessmen dont take time out of their busy schedules to meet eager 16-year-olds. cache 6h 0m Find India Media Murdoch stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. Son then invested billions in both of Snapdeals competitors, Paytm and Flipkart, ensuring that hed havea stake inany company that would eventually win Indias e-commerce race. After returning to Japan from USA, Masayoshi used a Korean surname instead to inspire children of Korean ethnicity residing in Japan. Softbank was a software distributor at the time, selling packaged software to Japanese clients. 5,285 stories Apple. [47] However, it also invested in companies supposedly focused on revolutionizing real estate, transportation, and retail. The Eternal Optimism of Masayoshi Son. In addition to this incredible work, Masayoshi also serves as a director of Sprint Corporation, Yahoo! [23] His family eventually moved out of the neighborhood so that Son could attend a better school. Jul 27, 2018 The most expensive home ever sold in California never actually went on the market. Marketing and community activations to ensure the successful debut of creative projects. However, after a number of high-profile setbacks, Son's investing strategy in the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds established in 2017 and 2019, has been described as one reliant on the greater fool theory. He was interested in business since childhood. Son with Softbanks humanoid robot, Pepper/Getty Images. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. It also has large stakes in Oyo and Grofers, and thanks to its $100 billion Vision Fund, is still willing to back any successful startups that may emerge in the country. Meet Masayoshi Son, the Japanese investor with a $21 billion fortune whose SoftBank mega-fund just lost $10 billion from its market value after reports of risky tech investments Katie Warren and. Masayoshi Son's house. He called it his cluster of number one strategy -- investing in unicorns that are, or could be, the number one players in the market.. He sought to rebuild his empire, this time creating a business that brought broadband services to Japan. . For three minutes, Son pleaded with Fujitas office assistants. You cant have a visionary strategy unless you know the details, Gundersen said. He has also bought a home near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California, that cost him $117 million. Musk's net worth now stands at $187 billion. Before the crash, he had a net worth of $78 billion, but lost it all overnight, losing $70 billion in one fateful day. had dwindled to 7%, Son established Yahoo! Distribution and use of this material are governed by SoftBank declined to make Son available for this article. The Journals report said that Son, who lives in Japan, didnt plan to move to the Kansas City area house full time. Reflects change since 5 pm ET of prior trading day. At the beginning of the year, the net worth of the owner of Twitter was $137 billion. Sprint in Overland Park declined to comment to a question from The Star seeking to verify the Journals report. It sold in 2012 for $117 million to SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son. Son started his investment journey in 1995. at first, he bought shares of Yahoo! [24], He left to study in the U.S. on the advice of Den Fujita. The narrative of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has a happier ending, albeit after more ups and downs than the wooden roller-coaster at the PNE. And several investors told CNNMoney that SoftBank is driving up valuations for everybody. Son has three brothers. The Alibaba deal is arguably the signature achievement of his career. under which this service is provided to you. In what could be seen as a precursor to its activities today, SoftBank pumped billions into hundreds of internet startups. News Corp is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. Worried due to Fukushima nuclear disaster, he started investing in the direction of a nationwide solar power network. 20ms. How billionaire Masa Son is shaking up Silicon Valley By Seth Fiegerman Not far from the storied venture capital firms on Sand Hill Road, there's a palatial estate where Masayoshi Son, Silicon. SoftBank's investment vehicle, the $100 billion Vision Fund, invests in emerging technologies like [] To help make his case, Barnard brought along a seven-foot tower of mustard greens and bok choy grown by his startup. The Japanese billionaire and SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son 's bullish bets on tech stocks helped him make $12 billion in profits for the June quarter while his technology investment firm racked . Masayoshi Son was born on the island of Kyushu, Japan. [36][32], In 2020, SoftBank Group agreed to sell U.K. chip designer Arm Limited to U.S. chip-maker Nvidia in a cash and stock deal initially worth $40 billion. 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