SoftBank Group Corp. is one of the world's largest technology investment conglomerates, founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son in Tokyo, Japan. Originally a software distributor, the company evolved over four decades into a global investment powerhouse. Its flagship vehicle, the SoftBank Vision Fund, launched in 2017 as the largest technology-focused fund ever assembled, closing at approximately $98.6 billion (Vision Fund 1), backed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, Apple, Qualcomm, and others. A second vehicle, Vision Fund 2, followed with roughly $56 billion – drawn primarily from SoftBank's own balance sheet. Combined assets under management across both funds exceed $150 billion, though the group's net asset value fluctuates significantly with public market conditions.
SoftBank's investment philosophy centers on backing category-defining companies at scale and speed. Son has historically favored "cluster of No. 1" thinking – owning the market leader in every major technology vertical simultaneously. This approach produced historic wins and equally historic losses. The company's $20 million bet on Alibaba in 2000 became worth over $130 billion at peak, widely cited as the most profitable venture investment ever made. Its 2016 acquisition of ARM Holdings for $32 billion, later re-listed on NASDAQ in September 2023 at a valuation exceeding $60 billion, stands as another long-term structural win. On the other side, WeWork saw its valuation collapse from $47 billion to near zero, costing SoftBank billions in write-downs. The bankruptcy of supply-chain finance firm Greensill Capital in 2021 and the collapse of FTX in November 2022 added further to a difficult 2021–2022 period for Vision Fund 2.
Notable investments
- Alibaba – $20M seed (1999–2000); the definitive SoftBank win, generating returns in the hundreds of billions.
- ARM Holdings – acquired for $32B in 2016, relisted NASDAQ 2023 (ticker: ARM). SoftBank retains majority stake.
- Uber – Vision Fund 1 invested $9.3B in 2018; partial exit following Uber's 2019 IPO.
- DoorDash – Vision Fund 1 participant; successful 2020 IPO generated strong returns.
- Coupang – South Korean e-commerce leader; Vision Fund 1 investment, IPO 2021 at $60B+ valuation.
- Mercado Bitcoin – led a $200M Series B in 2021 for Brazil's largest crypto exchange.
- FTX – Vision Fund 2 invested approximately $75M; written off entirely after FTX's collapse in November 2022.
- WeWork – invested over $10B across multiple rounds; became SoftBank's most scrutinized failure after WeWork's valuation implosion in 2019.
Team
Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO, remains the dominant figure at SoftBank. Born in Japan to Korean parents in 1957, Son built a technology distribution business from scratch before turning SoftBank into a global force through bold acquisitions and bets on internet companies in the late 1990s. He studied economics at UC Berkeley and is known for his "300-year vision" framework. Rajeev Misra, formerly the head of SoftBank Vision Fund and its primary dealmaker for several years, departed in 2022 to launch his own firm, One Investment Management. Navneet Govil serves as CFO of the Vision Fund. Marcelo Claure, a key lieutenant who ran SoftBank's Latin America Fund, also departed in 2022 following a reported compensation dispute. Since these departures, Son has assumed more direct control over investment decisions.
Recent activity
SoftBank's strategic priority shifted decisively toward artificial intelligence from 2023 onward. Son has made increasingly public statements on AI, describing it as the most transformative technology in human history and predicting the emergence of artificial superintelligence within a decade. In December 2024, SoftBank announced a $100 billion commitment to invest in the United States over four years, a pledge made alongside meetings with the incoming Trump administration. ARM Holdings' strong performance post-IPO has buoyed SoftBank's balance sheet, providing capital headroom for new bets. The company has been in discussions around OpenAI and invested in several AI infrastructure companies. SoftBank also announced a $6.5 billion deal to acquire Ampere Computing, a cloud-native chip designer, in 2024, signaling deeper ambitions in AI hardware.
In the crypto and Web3 space, SoftBank has been cautious since the FTX write-off. Its Latin America Fund remains active in Brazilian fintech, where Mercado Bitcoin continues operating. No major new crypto-native investments have been publicly announced since 2022. SoftBank's current posture treats blockchain infrastructure as adjacent to AI rather than a standalone thesis. As ARM becomes a central beneficiary of AI chip demand and Son's AI narrative strengthens, the group's near-term deployment i
