.jpg?width=512)
Masayoshi Son used proceeds from inventions and early trading ventures to found SoftBank, then repeatedly remade the company through software distribution, telecom acquisitions and technology investing. [1][2]
From software distribution to global technology investing
Son was born in Japan to an ethnic Korean family and later moved to California as a teenager. While studying in the United States he designed a pocket translator, hired university professors to help build it and sold the invention to Sharp, providing capital before he returned to Japan. [2]
He founded the company that became SoftBank in 1981 using money from his earlier ventures. The business first became a major Japanese distributor of personal-computer software, then expanded through publishing, internet investments and acquisitions as Son shifted from distribution toward a broader technology holding company. [2][1]
SoftBank's later expansion included major bets on Yahoo, Alibaba, mobile telecommunications, Arm and the Vision Fund. Son remained the company's founder and chief executive through repeated changes in strategy, making investment allocation and large acquisitions as important to his fortune as the operating business he originally started. [1]
Because SoftBank evolved into a holding and investment company, the value of individual portfolio companies or funds should not be added directly to Son's personal net worth. His economic exposure runs through his founder ownership in SoftBank and other documented interests, so gains and losses in major investments affect the value of that ownership without making every underlying asset personally his. [1][2]
Sources for background
Sources reviewed Sep 15, 2026.
- Biography: Masayoshi Son · SoftBank Group
- Master of the Internet · Forbes · Jul 5, 1999
Comparable Finance & Investments billionaires
Similar Finance & Investments billionaires by estimated net worth.
.jpg?width=512)