Masayoshi Son founded SoftBank Group Corp, a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. It manages the Vision Fund, the world's largest venture capital fund focused on technology, with over $100 billion in the capital.

Son at the age of 19, became convinced that computer technology would spark the next commercial revolution after falling in love with a microchip featured in a magazine. He started his first business while still a student. Son developed an electronic translator with the assistance of some professors, which he sold to Sharp Corporation for $1.7 million. Son graduated from Berkeley in 1980 with a B.A. in Economics and founded Unison World, a video game company in Oakland, CA.

Son launched SoftBank in September 1981 when he was only 24 years old. It eventually grew to be the biggest publisher of trade publications and computer and technology shows in Japan. The business went public in 1994, valued at $3 billion.

The story of Softbank’s world dominance starts in 1994 with the establishment of Softbank holdings, aiming to transform itself into a global company. The acquisition of Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. helped discover the embryonic Yahoo! Inc. in the U.S. In 1996, SoftBank formed a joint venture with Yahoo!, creating Yahoo! Japan. Masayoshi Son was the world's richest man for three days during the 2000 Dotcom crash before losing 99% of his company's value, 70 billion dollars. Softbank's share price dropped from 200 billion dollars in just a few months to 2 billion dollars.

When Alibaba went public in 2014, SoftBank's $20 million investment in the company became worth $90 billion. In an interview, Masayoshi recalled how Jack Ma had no business plan and no revenue, but his eyes were very strong, and he could see the charisma and leadership; as a result, even with the wrong business model, he took a chance on the individual Jack Ma, and today this investment is regarded as one of the greatest in the history of the world. Between 2001 and 2006, Masayoshi acquired several businesses to join the mobile internet and telecom industries. His investments paid off, and Yahoo Japan Broadband rose to prominence as one of Japan's leading internet service providers. SoftBank sought to create a mobile communications company from the ground up because it believed in the coming of the mobile Internet age. The business unveiled the smartphone on July 11, 2008, serving as the exclusive supplier of the iPhone 3G in Japan. Masayoshi Son saw the need for new energy that is safe and sustainable after suffering from the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011. To encourage the expanded use of renewable energy sources and to grow the company's operations both inside and outside of Japan, SoftBank Corp. established SB Energy Corp. in October 2011.

Since Masayoshi Son is by nature an inventor, the world was astounded in 2014 when SoftBank Mobile Corp. and Aldebaran Robotics unveiled Pepper, the first humanoid robot capable of recognizing human faces and emotions. In 2016, Masayoshi invested $34 billion in ARM, a manufacturer of semiconductors, making it his largest investment to date.

Since launching its inaugural Vision Fund in 2017, the largest tech-focused investment fund ever with a size of about $100 billion, it has increased its investing activities. A second Vision Fund, which has subsequently expanded to be over $30 billion in size, and a $5 billion Latin American Fund were both introduced by the company in 2019.

Softbank has been under scrutiny because of prominent issues at portfolio businesses like WeWork and Uber. However, some of its investments are starting to pay off handsomely, like the South Korean e-commerce behemoth Coupang, which went public in March 2021 with a $56.6 billion value.

SoftBank has supported several businesses, unicorns, and start-ups worth more than $1 billion in India. Paytm, Oyo, Ola, Lenskart, Policybazaar, FirstCry, Meesho, Unacademy, Zeta, Swiggy, Ola Electric and InMobi are a few of them.

"We're not looking to turn a profit." Son, who aspires to be recognized as the Information Age's Rothschild, stated, "We're attempting to make the future." Masayoshi Son is one of the shrewdest investors and businessmen ever with a vision of the future that many people aren't just appreciating. Now is the debate over if Son is crazy or a genius. I ask, why can't he be both?

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