SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has enjoyed a 40-year career in which he built SoftBank into one of the world’s largest tech investors and became a billionaire in the process.
But Son is facing one of the biggest challenges of his career, with the $100 billion Vision Fund racking up billions of dollars in losses, large investments like WeWork underperforming and an activist investor targeting his stock.
Some say Son risks squandering the trust he’s built over 25 years of investing. Friends and foes alike now wonder if he has lost a step, or worse – if he might be an industry scourge.
Business Insider spoke with more than a dozen people who have worked with Son, invested alongside him or across from him, or otherwise crossed paths with him, to understand what motivates him and how he might find his way out of his current predicament.
