32 Facts About Masayoshi Son

Masayoshi Son was born on 11 August 1957 and is a Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist.

Since Son founded SoftBank in 1981, he has made many investments, but the vast majority of those deals failed, and his reputation as an investor rests almost solely on his $20 million initial investment in Alibaba Group in 2000, a stake that had grew to a paper valuation of about $50 billion at the Alibaba IPO in 2014.

However, after a number of high-profile setbacks, Masayoshi Son's investing strategy in the first and second SoftBank Vision Funds established in 2017 and 2019, has been described as one reliant on the greater fool theory.

In 2013, Masayoshi Son was named the world's 45th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People.

Masayoshi Son had for many years the distinction of being the person who had lost the most money in history, a feat surpassed by Elon Musk in the following decades due to the volatile nature of the stock market, the shortcomings of financial risk and unavoidable changes in asset valuation.

Masayoshi Son was born as the second of four sons in Tosu, a city in the eastern part of Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan.

Masayoshi Son's father raised pigs and chickens on that land, and started an illegal sake business that eventually became successful enough for his family to become the first people in town to own a car.

Masayoshi Son pursued his interests in business by securing a meeting with Japan McDonald's president Den Fujita.

Masayoshi Son left to study in the US on the advice of Den Fujita.

At age 16, Masayoshi Son moved from Japan to California and lived with his friends and family in South San Francisco.

Masayoshi Son finished high school in three weeks by taking the required exams at Serramonte High.

Masayoshi Son attended the University of California, Berkeley where he studied economics and computer science majoring in economics.

At age 19, Masayoshi Son became confident that computer technology would ignite the next commercial revolution after being impressed by a microchip featured in a magazine.

Masayoshi Son began his first business endeavours while still a student.

Masayoshi Son made another $1.5 million by importing used video game machines from Japan, on credit and installing them in dormitories and restaurants.

Masayoshi Son later sold the company to an associate for close to $2 million, and the company was eventually acquired by Kyocera.

Masayoshi Son used his family's adopted Japanese surname for much of his childhood.

However, after he returned to Japan, Masayoshi Son decided to use his family's original Korean surname instead.

In 2021, Masayoshi Son relinquished his position as CEO of SoftBank Mobile, the mobile business of SoftBank Corp.

In June 2020, Masayoshi Son stepped down from the Alibaba board.

In March 2018, it was announced that Masayoshi Son was investing in the biggest ever solar project, a 200GW development planned for Saudi Arabia as part of its Vision 2030.

In July 2018, coverage indicated that Masayoshi Son "would underwrite most of 100 GW" of a planned 275 GW of new renewable provision in India by 2027.

Masayoshi Son claimed he would make personal connections with the CEOs of all companies funded by Vision Fund in order to enhance the creation of intertwined synergies among those companies.

Masayoshi Son planned to raise $100 billion for a new fund every few years, investing about $50 billion a year in startups.

Masayoshi Son became noted as a stock investor after the meteoric rise of Alibaba Group.

Masayoshi Son had invested $20 million in Jack Ma's Alibaba back in 2000 when it was a young Chinese startup company although regrettably passing up early opportunities to invest in both Amazon and Tesla.

Masayoshi Son met his wife, Masami Ohno, the daughter of a prominent Japanese doctor, while both were students at the University of California, Berkeley.

Masayoshi Son has bought a home near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California, that cost him $117 million.

Masayoshi Son owns the SoftBank Hawks, a professional Japanese baseball team.

Masayoshi Son has three brothers and is the second oldest of the siblings.

Masayoshi Son's youngest brother, Taizo Son, is a serial entrepreneur and investor, having founded GungHo Online Entertainment and the venture capital firm Mistletoe.

In 2011 Masayoshi Son pledged to donate 10 billion yen and his remaining salary until retirement to support victims of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.