Masayoshi Son facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Masayoshi Son
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| 孫 正義 | |
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Son in 2008
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| Born |
Masayoshi Yasumoto (安本 正義)
11 August 1957 Tosu, Saga, Japan
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| Education | University of California, Berkeley (BA) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, investor, philanthropist |
| Known for | Principal founder of Softbank |
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| Spouse(s) |
Masami Ohno
(m. 1979) |
| Children | 2 |
Masayoshi Son (Japanese: 孫 正義, romanized: Son Masayoshi, Korean: 손정의, romanized: Son Jeong-ui; born 11 August 1957) is a Japanese billionaire. He is a very successful business person, investor, and someone who gives money to good causes. He is the founder and CEO of SoftBank Group Corp.. This company focuses on investing in technology businesses. He also leads Arm Holdings in the UK.
Masayoshi Son became famous for his work in computer software, publishing books and magazines about computers, and telecommunications in Japan. This started in the 1980s and grew a lot in the 1990s and 2000s. He made an early investment of $20 million in Alibaba Group in 2000. This investment grew to be worth around $75 billion by 2014. This helped SoftBank become very successful. He is known for making big investments, which sometimes lead to big successes and sometimes to big losses.
In 2013, Forbes magazine listed Son as one of the World's Most Powerful People. As of July 2024, he is one of the richest people in the world. He was also named in the Time 100 AI list in 2024.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Masayoshi Son was born in Tosu, Saga, a city in Japan. He is the second of four sons.
His family is of Korean background, known as Zainichi Korean. His grandfather moved from Korea to Japan and worked as a miner. His father started a successful business. His family later moved so Masayoshi could go to a better school.
Son became interested in business early on. He met with Den Fujita, the president of Japan McDonald's. Following Fujita's advice, Son began to study English and computer science.
At age 16, Son moved from Japan to California in the U.S. He finished high school very quickly by taking special exams.
Son then went to the University of California, Berkeley. He studied economics and computer science. When he was 19, he became very excited about computer technology. He believed it would change the world.
He started his first businesses while still a student. With help from professors, Son created an electronic translator. He sold it to Sharp Corporation for $1.7 million. He also made $1.5 million by bringing used video game machines from Japan. He placed them in dorms and restaurants.
Son graduated from Berkeley in 1980. He started a video game company called Unison World. He later sold this company for almost $2 million.
When he returned to Japan, Son decided to use his family's original Korean surname. This made him a role model for many ethnic Korean children in Japan.
SoftBank
Masayoshi Son is the founder and CEO of SoftBank. He also owns the largest part of the company.
SoftBank's Journey
Masayoshi Son started SoftBank in 1981. At first, it sold computer software. Over time, it grew into a major telecommunications company in Japan. Later, it became SoftBank Group Corp., a company that invests in other businesses.
Even before it became a main investment company, SoftBank often invested in other businesses. Some investments were very successful, like Alibaba Group in 1999 and Yahoo! in 1995. Others did not work out as well.
In 2021, Masayoshi Son stepped down as CEO of SoftBank Mobile, which is the mobile phone part of SoftBank.
Yahoo! and Alibaba Investments
Son was one of the first people to invest in internet companies. He bought a share of Yahoo! in 1995. He also invested $20 million in Alibaba in 1999. For a short time, he was the richest person in the world.
SoftBank owned a large part of Alibaba. This was worth a lot of money. Son also helped start Yahoo! BroadBand in Japan. This company became Japan's top broadband provider. In 2020, Son left the Alibaba board. By 2023, SoftBank had sold most of its shares in Alibaba.
Arm Holdings
In 2016, SoftBank announced plans to buy Arm Holdings. Arm Holdings is a UK company that designs computer chips. This was a very large purchase for a European technology company. The deal was completed in September 2016.
In 2020, SoftBank Group agreed to sell Arm Limited to Nvidia, a U.S. chip-maker. This deal was worth a lot of money. SoftBank said that combining Arm and Nvidia would create a company that would lead the future of artificial intelligence. However, the deal with Nvidia did not happen. This was because regulators in the U.S. and Europe had concerns. After this, Arm filed to be listed on the U.S. stock market in 2023.
Sprint Corporation
In the 2010s, SoftBank bought a large share of Sprint. Sprint is a telecommunications company in the U.S. SoftBank later owned even more of Sprint.
Sprint and T-Mobile US merged in 2020. This was a big deal worth $26 billion. By 2021, SoftBank Group Corp. had bought shares in Deutsche Telekom, which is T-Mobile's parent company.
Solar Power
After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, Masayoshi Son spoke out against nuclear power. He started investing in a nationwide solar power network for Japan.
In 2018, Son announced he was investing in a huge solar project in Saudi Arabia. He also planned to support a lot of new renewable energy projects in India.
Vision Fund
The SoftBank Group started the Vision Fund in 2017. This fund was created to invest in new technologies. These include artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and the internet of things. The goal was to invest in many AI companies. It also invested in companies that aimed to change real estate, transportation, and shopping. Son wanted to connect the CEOs of all these companies.
In 2019, a second Vision Fund was created. SoftBank itself put a lot of money into this fund.
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By 2020, the first fund had invested in many companies. These included Coupang, Didi, Doordash, Fanatics, Grab, Oyo, Paytm, Uber, and WeWork. However, the fund also faced challenges. Some investments did not do well, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Son became well-known as an investor after the huge success of Alibaba Group. He had invested in Jack Ma's Alibaba when it was a young company in 2000. He also created the SoftBank Vision Fund in 2017. This fund was very large and aimed to support technology startups. However, some of the fund's investments, like WeWork, faced big losses. This led to questions about the fund's strategy.
By 2022, the SoftBank Vision Fund reported a very large loss. This was because the value of its investments went down. Some people said that Son's investment choices were sometimes too quick or not well-timed. Despite these challenges, Son continues to be a major figure in technology investment.
Stargate
Son was named chairman of The Stargate Project in January 2025. This is a new project that focuses on artificial intelligence. It involves SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle Corporation.
Personal Life
Masayoshi Son met his wife, Masami Ohno, while they were both students at the University of California, Berkeley. They got married in 1979 and have two daughters.
He lives in Tokyo in a large mansion. He also owns a home near Silicon Valley in California. Son owns the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, which is a professional Japanese baseball team.
Masayoshi Son has three brothers. His youngest brother, Taizo Son, is also a successful business person and investor.
When he moved to the United States at age 16, he decided to use his real Korean family name. He said that living in the U.S. helped him be more open-minded than if he had stayed only in Japan.
See also
In Spanish: Masayoshi Son para niños
- LY Corporation
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