SoftBank Group
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SoftBank Group Corp. (Japanese: ソフトバンクグループ株式会社) is a Japanese multinational holding conglomerate headquartered at the Tokyo Shiodome City Center in Minato, Tokyo. The company was founded by Masayoshi Son on September 3, 1981 in Fukuoka, Japan, originally as a packaged-software distributor, and has since transformed into one of the world's largest technology investors, with holdings across telecommunications, semiconductors, e-commerce, ride-hailing, and artificial intelligence.[1][2]
SoftBank Group's most prominent assets include Arm Holdings, the British semiconductor IP company acquired in 2016 for $32 billion; stakes in dozens of technology companies held through the Vision Fund family of investment vehicles; and a substantial position in OpenAI accumulated through 2025 funding rounds. The group is led by Son as Chairman and CEO, and the parent trades on the Tokyo Stock Exchange under ticker 9984.[3]
SoftBank is best known for two contrasting narratives. The first is a series of legendary early bets, particularly a $20 million investment in Alibaba in 2000 that grew to a paper value exceeding $100 billion, and a 1996 investment in Yahoo. The second is the volatility of its later investing era: the WeWork debacle, losses on Wirecard and Greensill Capital, and the failed $40 billion sale of Arm to Nvidia. Since 2024 SoftBank has positioned itself as the principal financial backer of the global AI build-out, anchoring the Stargate Initiative and committing tens of billions of dollars to OpenAI.[4][5]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Public (Kabushiki gaisha) |
| Industry | Holding company, technology investment, telecommunications |
| Founded | September 3, 1981 in Fukuoka, Japan |
| Founder | Masayoshi Son |
| Headquarters | Tokyo Shiodome City Center, Minato, Tokyo, Japan |
| Key people | Masayoshi Son (Chairman and CEO); Yoshimitsu Goto (CFO) |
| Subsidiaries | Arm Holdings (~90%), SoftBank Corp., Vision Fund, LY Corporation, PayPay |
| Stock listing | Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9984 |
| Website | group.softbank |
Son founded the company on September 3, 1981 in Fukuoka, Japan, under the name Nihon SoftBank, distributing packaged personal-computer software to Japanese retailers. He had returned to Japan from California after graduating from UC Berkeley, where he had built and sold a pocket-translator prototype to Sharp Corporation for around $1 million. According to corporate lore, on the day of incorporation Son climbed atop an apple crate in front of two part-time employees and announced that within five years the company would generate $75 million in sales.[1][6] SoftBank acquired Ziff-Davis Publishing's exhibitions division (the COMDEX trade show) in 1995, then purchased Ziff-Davis's publishing assets in 1996 for $2.1 billion.[7]
In early 1996 SoftBank invested approximately $100 million in Yahoo and jointly created Yahoo Japan the same year.[8] In 2000 Son met Jack Ma and committed $20 million to Alibaba within minutes of their first meeting. When Alibaba listed on the NYSE in September 2014 in what was then the largest IPO in history, the SoftBank stake was valued at around $60 billion, and SoftBank later periodically sold tranches to fund investments and repay group debt.[9]
During the dot-com crash of 2000 to 2002, SoftBank's market value collapsed by roughly 99 percent, a paper loss often cited as approximately $70 billion. In 2006 SoftBank acquired Vodafone K.K. (Vodafone Japan) for approximately 1.75 trillion yen (roughly $15 billion), giving it Japan's third-largest mobile carrier and the exclusive Japanese launch partner for Apple's iPhone in 2008.[10] In 2010 Son delivered his "Next 30-Year Vision" presentation, framed as the first installment of a 300-year plan extending to 2310.[11]
In July 2013 SoftBank closed its acquisition of a roughly 78 percent stake in Sprint Corporation for $21.6 billion. Sprint required years of capital injections before merging into T-Mobile US in April 2020, leaving SoftBank with a roughly 24 percent T-Mobile stake.[12][13] On September 5, 2016 SoftBank closed an all-cash acquisition of Arm Holdings plc for 24.3 billion pounds (approximately $32 billion), a 43 percent premium and the largest acquisition of a European technology company in history at that point.[14]
In May 2017 SoftBank held the first close of the Vision Fund, which reached approximately $98.6 billion in committed capital. With roughly $45 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, $15 billion from Abu Dhabi's Mubadala, $28 billion from SoftBank Group, and smaller commitments from Apple, Foxconn, Qualcomm, and Sharp, it was the largest privately raised technology investment fund ever assembled.[15][16] Vision Fund I deployed capital at extraordinary speed across Uber, ByteDance, DoorDash, Coupang, Grab, OYO, WeWork, Slack, Wirecard, and Magic Leap. In October 2019 SoftBank disclosed Vision Fund II with a $108 billion target, though external demand fell short and SoftBank funded most of it from the parent balance sheet.[17]
The period from 2019 through 2022 was marked by setbacks. WeWork pulled its IPO in September 2019. The 2020 collapse of Wirecard cost SoftBank roughly $1 billion, and the 2021 collapse of Greensill Capital cost approximately $3 billion. In May 2020 SoftBank reported a record annual loss of around 961 billion yen (about $9 billion), and Son displayed a cartoon slide of a unicorn falling into a "valley of coronavirus." In fiscal year 2023 SoftBank reported a Vision Fund segment loss of roughly 4.3 trillion yen, a Japanese postwar record for a non-financial company.[18][19]
On September 14, 2023 Arm completed its IPO on the Nasdaq Global Select Market at $51 per share, raising approximately $4.87 billion at a $54 billion fully diluted valuation. SoftBank retained roughly 90 percent of Arm's shares, and Arm's appreciation through 2024 and 2025 became a principal driver of SoftBank Group's net asset value.[20] From late 2024 onward, SoftBank pivoted aggressively toward AI, culminating in early 2025 with a $40 billion-led financing of OpenAI at a $300 billion valuation and the Stargate Initiative, a $500 billion AI infrastructure joint venture announced on January 21, 2025.[21][22]
Masayoshi Son was born on August 11, 1957 in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan. He is of Korean ethnic background (Zainichi Korean). Son moved to the United States at age 16 and later transferred to UC Berkeley, where he studied economics and computer science and graduated in 1980. While at Berkeley he developed a pocket electronic translator, which he sold to Sharp Corporation for approximately $1 million. He returned to Japan in 1981 and founded SoftBank later that year.[23]
Son's net worth has fluctuated dramatically, ranging from below $10 billion after the dot-com crash and the 2019 to 2020 Vision Fund losses to more than $30 billion in the early 2020s. As of late 2025 Forbes estimated his net worth in the range of $35 billion to $40 billion.[24] Son is widely regarded as one of the most aggressive long-horizon investors in technology, known for a decision-making style centered on direct meetings: many of SoftBank's largest investments, including the original Alibaba check, were initiated within hours of Son's first meeting with the founder. He has publicly described the 2010 "300-year vision" as a literal multi-century framework for SoftBank.[11][25] His most-cited outcomes are the Alibaba and Yahoo wins and the WeWork, Wirecard, and Greensill losses. Financially material was SoftBank's exit from a position in Nvidia, acquired around 2017 for approximately $4 billion and largely sold by Q1 2019 before Nvidia's subsequent multi-trillion-dollar appreciation. SoftBank reportedly began rebuilding a smaller Nvidia position from 2024 onward.[26]
The table below summarizes principal disclosed holdings; stakes are approximate, based on filings through 2025.[3][27]
| Holding | Sector | Stake | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arm Holdings | Semiconductor IP | ~90% | Acquired 2016 for $32B; IPO Sept 14 2023 at $54B |
| OpenAI | AI foundation models | Reported high single to low double digits | $30B+ cumulative commitment by late 2025 |
| ByteDance (TikTok parent) | Consumer internet | Minority via Vision Fund | 2018 secondary deals |
| Coupang | E-commerce (Korea) | ~30%+ | NYSE IPO March 2021 |
| Didi Global | Ride-hailing (China) | Minority | Hit by 2021-2022 China crackdown |
| Uber | Ride-hailing | Largely exited | Pre-IPO; sold post-2019 IPO |
| T-Mobile US | Wireless | ~9% | Via Sprint merger 2020 |
| LY Corporation | Internet (Yahoo Japan + LINE) | ~64% JV with Naver | TSE 4689 |
| SoftBank Corp. | Telecom (Japan) | ~40% | Separately listed TSE 9434 |
| PayPay | Mobile payments | Majority via SoftBank Corp. | Largest QR-code platform in Japan |
| Other Vision Fund | WeWork, Klarna, OYO, Grab, DoorDash, Slack, Magic Leap | Minority or exited | Various stages |
The SoftBank Vision Fund is a family of late-stage technology investment vehicles comprising Vision Fund 1 (SVF1), Vision Fund 2 (SVF2), and smaller LatAm Funds and Vision Fund 3-style direct AI vehicles.[15][28]
Vision Fund 1 held its first close in May 2017 and reached a final committed size of approximately $98.6 billion. Sovereign wealth dominated the LP roster: roughly $45 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and $15 billion from Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. Apple committed roughly $1 billion, Foxconn about $500 million, with smaller commitments from Qualcomm and Sharp, while SoftBank Group itself committed roughly $28 billion. Approximately $40 billion of external commitments were structured as preferred equity with a 7 percent annual coupon.[15][29] Vision Fund 1's most successful exits include Coupang (March 2021), DoorDash (December 2020), and Slack (acquired by Salesforce 2021); its most damaging positions are WeWork, Wirecard, OYO, and Greensill Capital.[16]
Vision Fund 2 was launched in October 2019 with a $108 billion target. External fundraising fell short after the WeWork failure, and SoftBank funded essentially all of it from its own balance sheet. The vehicle deployed roughly $50 billion across 250+ portfolio companies weighted toward Chinese internet platforms, fintech, and consumer software, and was hurt by the 2021-2022 valuation reset and the Chinese platform crackdown.[17][30] From 2023 onward, SoftBank tilted new AI commitments toward parent-balance-sheet exposures rather than Vision Fund vehicles, and industry coverage has referenced an "AI-pivoted" Vision Fund 3 in private form.[31]
Arm Holdings is a Cambridge, England-based company that licenses CPU instruction-set architectures and processor IP to nearly every major chipmaker.[14][20]
On July 18, 2016 SoftBank announced an offer for Arm at 17 pounds per share in cash. The deal closed on September 5, 2016 with total consideration of approximately 24.3 billion pounds (about $32 billion), a 43 percent premium. Son's commitment to UK regulators to double Arm's UK headcount within five years was delivered by 2021.[14][32]
In September 2020 SoftBank announced a $40 billion deal to sell Arm to Nvidia, structured primarily in Nvidia stock plus cash. Over the following 17 months the deal encountered escalating regulatory opposition: the US Federal Trade Commission filed an administrative complaint in December 2021, the UK's Competition and Markets Authority opened a Phase 2 review, and the European Commission opened its own investigation. On February 8, 2022 the deal was abandoned, and Nvidia paid a $1.25 billion break fee. SoftBank pivoted to preparing Arm for its own public offering.[33]
Arm priced its IPO on Nasdaq on September 13, 2023 at $51 per share, raising approximately $4.87 billion at a $54 billion fully diluted valuation. SoftBank retained roughly 90 percent of Arm post-IPO, the largest US technology listing of 2023.[20][34] Although Arm's IP is best known as the foundation of nearly every modern smartphone, Arm has expanded into data center servers through Arm Neoverse. Arm-based server cores power AWS Graviton, Microsoft Azure Cobalt, Google Axion, and a growing share of Nvidia Grace AI training systems. SoftBank has framed Arm's data-center expansion as the second leg of a broader AI infrastructure thesis pursued through equity investments in data center operators, OpenAI, and Stargate.[35]
SoftBank Group's relationship with OpenAI began in 2024 and accelerated through major capital commitments in 2025 that made SoftBank the single largest external financial backer of OpenAI.[21][36] In early January 2025 SoftBank led a financing round at a $300 billion valuation with $40 billion of primary capital. SoftBank committed roughly $30 billion, with co-investors including Microsoft, Coatue, Altimeter, and Thrive Capital filling the remainder, and the round was structured in tranches tied to OpenAI's corporate restructuring.[21][37] Through 2025 SoftBank participated in additional OpenAI financings, and by late 2025 cumulative committed exposure was widely described as exceeding $30 billion in primary equity, substantially higher when including Stargate-related infrastructure capital. Press estimates placed SoftBank's effective economic share in the high single digits to low double digits.[38]
On January 21, 2025 SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi-based MGX announced the Stargate Initiative, a US AI infrastructure joint venture targeting $500 billion over four years. The announcement was made at the White House by Donald Trump on his second day in office, with Son, Sam Altman, and Larry Ellison present. Stargate was structured to build hyperscale data center capacity in the US with an initial $100 billion deployment, with SoftBank as chairman entity and OpenAI as operational partner. Initial sites included a multi-gigawatt buildout in Abilene, Texas. Combined with direct OpenAI commitments, Stargate made SoftBank the dominant private financier of the US AI build-out through 2025.[22][39]
SoftBank's AI strategy in 2024 and 2025 has revolved around three pillars: direct exposure to OpenAI, complementary AI-software equity bets, and infrastructure exposure through Arm and Stargate.[40] Direct AI bets reported include positions in Perplexity, Character.AI, Sakana AI in Tokyo, AI search company Cristal AI, and a smaller reported position in Elon Musk's xAI. SoftBank has also committed to a Japan-focused AI program through SoftBank Corp., including investment in domestic Japanese-language large language models and dedicated AI data center capacity in Japan.[41] Son has framed AI in investor communications as "artificial superintelligence," stating in a 2025 keynote that he expected the bulk of SoftBank's value over the following decade to come from AI-related holdings rather than telecom or legacy internet positions.[42]
SoftBank Group Corp. (TSE 9984) owns stakes in several publicly listed entities. Major operating subsidiaries and listed affiliates include SoftBank Corp. (TSE 9434, Japanese mobile, broadband, enterprise IT), Arm Holdings plc (Nasdaq: ARM, ~90% owned), LY Corporation (TSE 4689, Yahoo Japan and LINE in a JV with Naver), PayPay (Japan's largest QR-code payment platform), SoftBank Robotics (maker of Pepper and NAO), and the Vision Fund 1, 2, and LatAm vehicles.[3][43] SoftBank Robotics is the legacy of an earlier push that included the 2012 acquisition of French manufacturer Aldebaran Robotics and the 2014 launch of Pepper, with mass production discontinued in 2021. SoftBank also owned Boston Dynamics from 2017 until selling a controlling 80 percent stake to Hyundai in December 2020.[44]
SoftBank's strategy of large concentrated bets has produced multiple high-profile losses and controversies that have shaped public perception of the group.[18][45]
SoftBank invested approximately $18.5 billion into WeWork and affiliates over multiple rounds beginning in 2017. WeWork's planned IPO collapsed in September 2019 after scrutiny of the prospectus revealed governance and financial issues, and the private valuation fell from $47 billion to roughly $8 billion within weeks. SoftBank replaced founder Adam Neumann's leadership and recapitalized the business, but additional capital injections did not stabilize the company. WeWork filed for Chapter 11 on November 6, 2023, and SoftBank wrote down most of the position.[46]
The Vision Fund had taken a roughly $1 billion convertible exposure to German fintech Wirecard in April 2019. In June 2020 Wirecard's auditor confirmed that approximately 1.9 billion euros of cash supposedly held in trustee accounts in Asia did not exist, and Wirecard filed for insolvency days later, costing SoftBank approximately $1 billion.[47] SoftBank also invested approximately $1.5 billion of equity into Greensill Capital, with billions more through Vision Fund deposits in Greensill's funds at Credit Suisse. Greensill collapsed in March 2021, and total SoftBank losses have been estimated at approximately $3 billion.[48]
The murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2, 2018 prompted scrutiny of major foreign partners of the Saudi PIF. Because PIF was the largest LP in Vision Fund 1, SoftBank faced significant pressure. Son condemned the killing in press conferences while reaffirming commitment to Saudi investors and stating that SoftBank would not return PIF capital.[49]
Subsidiary LY Corporation, formed in 2023 from the merger of Yahoo Japan and LINE, disclosed data security incidents in 2023 and 2024 including leakage of personal information for hundreds of thousands of LINE users via a third-party vendor. The Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications issued multiple administrative guidance letters in 2024 directing LY Corporation to reduce operational dependence on Naver.[50]
SoftBank Group's governance is unusually concentrated for a public company of its size, with Masayoshi Son holding personal control over major capital allocation decisions.[51] Principal corporate officers as of 2025 included Son as Chairman, Representative Director, and CEO; Yoshimitsu Goto as Senior Vice President and CFO; and Junichi Miyakawa as President and CEO of SoftBank Corp.[52] Marcelo Claure, former CEO of Sprint and former COO of SoftBank Group, departed in early 2022 after compensation disputes. Rajeev Misra, the founding head of the Vision Fund, transitioned out of the day-to-day role in 2022 to launch his own vehicle.[53] SoftBank Group Corp. is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (9984) and is a Nikkei 225 constituent. Son personally holds an ownership stake reported in the range of 30 to 35 percent depending on date and pledged shares.[54]
SoftBank Group reports consolidated financial results in Japanese yen on a fiscal year ending March 31. The reporting structure breaks results into segments: Investment Business of Holding Companies (the parent and direct holdings, including Arm), the Vision Fund segment, SoftBank Corp., and Arm. Because the parent's largest assets are publicly traded equities and Vision Fund holdings carried at fair value, period-to-period results are dominated by mark-to-market gains and losses rather than operating cash flows.[55]
In fiscal 2023 the Vision Fund segment reported a record loss of approximately 4.3 trillion yen at peak quarterly impairment. In fiscal 2024 the group returned to profitability, driven by the Arm IPO mark-up, and reporting through 2025 reflected a substantial swing toward AI-driven revaluations. SoftBank's reported net asset value floats in the range of 20 to 35 trillion yen as of 2024 to 2025 (roughly $130 to $250 billion at prevailing exchange rates). Group market capitalization has at times traded at substantial discounts to net asset value, and SoftBank has periodically responded with significant share buyback programs.[56] The "300-year vision" announced by Son in 2010 remains the explicit long-term strategic framework articulated by management.[11]
Masayoshi Son, Vision Fund, Arm Holdings, OpenAI, Stargate Initiative, SoftBank Robotics, PayPay, LINE Corporation, Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund, Mubadala, MGX, AI infrastructure.