During the dot-com boom and bust, the Japanese multinational investment holding company, SoftBank, lost 99% of its market capitalization. Along with it, CEO Masayoshi Son, who briefly reigned as the world's richest person at the time, saw his wealth fall by a whopping $70 billion. Son refused to give up. The visionary tycoon has endured a rollercoaster ride, selling the country’s first iPhones and making investments in some of the world’s biggest startups. Last month, the company hit its new lifetime high, after enduring another tough period.
Here's how the Japanese billionaire lost it all and gained it back
Son has been at the helm of SoftBank Group Corp. ever since its inception. While he may not be as globally recognized as some of his billionaire peers, he was once the richest in the world, outranking Microsoft founder, Bill Gates.
At the peak of the dot-com bubble in late 1999 and early 2000, Son’s net worth was leaping up by about $10 billion a week, as per Bloomberg. For about three days, he became the world's richest person as well, but before the news could spread, his company's shares plunged. The shares fell by 75% over two months and by the end of 2000, they were down by 93% with the company at risk of going bankrupt. Along with it, Son saw about $70 billion of his fortune disappear.
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While reeling from the loss, his company made a strategic decision to invest $20 billion in the little-known Chinese startup, Alibaba. This played a pivotal role in recovering his fortunes, and it led to one of the most successful turnarounds in business history. Over 23 years, SoftBank made a gain of $72 billion from the Alibaba investment, WSJ reported.
Apart from Alibaba, the strategic acquisition of Vodafone Japan, which helped transform Japan’s telecommunications landscape, solidified SoftBank’s position as a major player.
Furthermore, when several Japanese carriers were focusing on Japanese mobile products, Son bet on the new Apple iPhone as he believed it would be a huge success. The risky gamble gave SoftBank a significant leg up on the competition. Over the years, the company made crucial investments in tech disruptors like Uber, Slack, Nvidia, OpenAI, and more.
In 2017, SoftBank launched the Vision Fund, to focus on next-generation technologies like AI. While Son was driving the company towards another peak, its shares plunged again in 2021, in the wake of Beijing’s crackdown on tech firms and a flurry of failed investments in startups such as WeWork, OneWeb Ltd., Katerra Inc., and Zume Pizza Inc., as per Bloomberg. The fall threatened to tarnish Son's reputation as the company lost billions of dollars.
Yet again, SoftBank’s focus and vision pulled it through and with its close ties with Nvidia and OpenAI, the company strengthened its position in amid the global AI race.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that SoftBank's stock rose to a new lifetime high, marking a vote of confidence in Son’s ambitions to ramp up investments in AI and semiconductors. Today, Son comfortably maintains his billionaire status with a net worth of $14.3 billion, as per the publication.
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