Masayoshi Son and the High-Stakes Evolution of the Vision Fund

Masayoshi Son transformed technology financing by assembling capital pools of unprecedented scale. Through SoftBank Group, he established the SoftBank Vision Fund in 2017, introducing a hundred-billion-dollar vehicle managed by SoftBank Investment Advisers that became the largest technology investment fund in the world. By targeting emerging platforms across diverse industries, Son sought to accelerate growth cycles and foster coordinated synergies across an expansive roster of private tech companies.

A New Scale in Global Venture Capital

The initial Vision Fund launched with an explicit mandate to invest vast resources into emerging technology segments. SoftBank concentrated capital on artificial intelligence, robotics, and the internet of things, while also directing significant funds toward businesses aiming to disrupt transportation, retail, and real estate. Son sought close ties with portfolio chief executives, intending to generate operational partnerships and shared efficiencies across funded businesses.

By 2020, the original fund held stakes in 88 enterprises. Its portfolio encompassed global transportation, logistics, and retail businesses such as Uber, Grab, Coupang, Didi, DoorDash, Fanatics, Paytm, Oyo, and WeWork. Son aimed to build upon his earlier corporate victories, including a twenty-million-dollar early backing of Alibaba in 2000 that grew to an estimated value of seventy-five billion dollars around its public listing. Rather than deploying modest sums, the original fund placed an average of 943 million dollars per company, reshaping valuation expectations across international startup markets.

Market Shifts and Portfolio Adjustments

Rapid expansion eventually encountered challenging economic conditions and declining market valuations. In 2019, Son initiated SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with an initial target of 108 billion dollars, committing 38 billion dollars from SoftBank itself. When external investment partners did not materialize to meet the target, the scope was scaled back. Even so, the pace of dealmaking accelerated. By October 2021, the second fund quintupled its portfolio size within nine months, operating with fewer personnel and trimming the average investment size to 192 million dollars per company.

Significant financial challenges mounted as market downturns exposed weaknesses across heavily backed enterprises. Holdings such as WeWork, Katerra, Greensill Capital, Wirecard, OneWeb, and OYO Rooms experienced sharp difficulties. Startups that had previously attained lofty valuations, including Klarna, saw their worth decrease markedly. For the financial year ending March 31, 2022, the Vision Fund posted a historic loss of 3.5 trillion yen, or roughly 27.4 billion dollars, leading Son to publicly acknowledge missteps in the timing and management of the fund’s outlays.

Realigning Around Computing and Infrastructure

Following these sharp downturns, Son reoriented SoftBank toward computing infrastructure and semiconductor architecture. Beginning in 2023, the organization carried out a strategic pivot that prioritized artificial intelligence as its central focus. SoftBank emphasized the role of its chip design subsidiary Arm Holdings, which it had acquired in 2016 for approximately 24 billion pounds, advancing plans for a public market listing after a previously planned sale to Nvidia fell through.

By 2024 and 2025, the strategic pivot helped return SoftBank to profitability, driven by value increases among its artificial intelligence holdings. Net profit for the second quarter of fiscal 2025 rose to 2.5 trillion yen. Extending this strategic direction, Son took on the role of chairman of Stargate LLC in January 2025, an American artificial intelligence infrastructure project formed alongside OpenAI, Oracle Corporation, and MGX. The initiative signaled a firm move from backing varied consumer applications to underwriting core computing architecture.