Masayoshi Son

Masayoshi Son (, , born Masayoshi Yasumoto, ; August 11, 1957) is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist from Japan. A Zainichi Korean, he is the founder, representative director, corporate officer, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group (SBG). a technology-focused investment holding company, as well as chairman of UK-based Arm Holdings and US-based Stargate LLC.

As an entrepreneur, he achieved notability in PC software distribution, computing-related book and magazine publishing, and telecommunications in Japan, starting in the 1980s and booming throughout the 1990s and 2000s. His early $20 million investment in Alibaba Group in 2000 grew substantially over the years, reaching a valuation of around $75 billion by 2014 following Alibaba's IPO and contributing significantly to SoftBank's financial success. SoftBank's 27 percent stake in Alibaba was worth $132 billion in 2018, including additional purchases of the stock since 2000. The morphing of his own telecom company SoftBank Corp. into an investment management firm called SoftBank Group Corp. made him noted worldwide as a stock investor. He is known for his bold investment strategies, sometimes resulting in major losses, particularly with the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds.

In 2013, Son was placed 45th on the ''Forbes'' magazine's list of the World's Most Powerful People. In 2017 he was named Entrepreneur of the Year at The Asian Awards. As of May 2025, Son ranks 65th on the ''Forbes'' list of The World's Billionaires and is #177 on the ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index''. He had for many years the distinction of being the person who had lost the most money in history (more than $59bn during the dot-com crash of 2000 alone, when his SoftBank shares plummeted), a feat surpassed by Elon Musk in the following decades. Son was included in Time 100 AI list in 2024. Provided by Wikipedia