Once asked on Twitter about his receding hairline, Masayoshi Son, founder of Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank, retorted: “My hair is not receding. I’m advancing.” It was a typically bullish remark from the 60-year-old tycoon, listed by Forbes as Japan’s richest man with an estimated fortune of
Once asked on Twitter about his receding hairline, Masayoshi Son, founder of Japanese telecoms giant SoftBank, retorted: “My hair is not receding. I’m advancing.”
It was a typically bullish remark from the 60-year-old tycoon, listed by Forbes as Japan’s richest man with an estimated fortune of $22.2 billion, who has embarked on a furious spree of purchases culminating in Thursday’s deal to take a hefty stake in ride-sharing app Uber.
Under Son’s leadership, SoftBank is sending shockwaves through the tech world with its massive new Vision Fund — a venture capital fund with $100 billion in its coffers intended for start-ups.
The new fund is expected to dominate the industry to such an extent, it’s playfully referred to as a “gorilla”.
The bold and flamboyant Son was one of the first personalities from the business world to meet another unconventional tycoon — Donald Trump — last year after his election victory.
Son pledged to invest $50 billion in the US economy and create 50,000 jobs and Trump’s off-the-cuff announcement of this gave reporters their first glimpse into the president-elect’s unusual communication strategy.
Son’s SoftBank has not been afraid to venture outside its core business — completing deals with the likes of e-commerce Chinese giant Alibaba and French robotics firm Aldebaran, which developed the chatty human-shaped “Pepper” robot.
And on Thursday, Softbank and Uber announced that the tech titan would take a large stake in the U.
