"Masayoshi Son isn't known for half measures. The SoftBank founder's career has been studded with brow-raising bets, each one seemingly more outrageous than the last. His latest move is to cash out his entire $5.8 billion NVIDIA stake to go all-in on AI, and while it surprised the business world on Tuesday, it maybe should not. At this point, it's almost more surprising when the 68-year-old Son doesn't push his chips to the center of the table."
"Consider that during the late 1990s dot-com bubble, Son's net worth soared to approximately $78 billion by February 2000, briefly making him the richest person in the world. Then came the ugly dot-com implosion months later. He lost $70 billion personally - which, at the time, was the largest financial loss by any individual in history - as SoftBank's market cap plummeted 98% from $180 billion to just $2.5 billion."
"When Son needed capital to launch his first Vision Fund in 2017, he didn't hesitate to seek $45 billion from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund - long before taking Saudi money became acceptable in Silicon Valley. After journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered in October 2018, Son condemned the killing as "horrific and deeply regrettable" but insisted SoftBank couldn't "turn our backs on the Saudi people," maintaining the firm's commitment to managing the kingdom's capital."
Masayoshi Son sold his entire $5.8 billion NVIDIA stake to concentrate SoftBank's capital on AI. His career combines blockbuster successes and spectacular losses. During the 1990s dot-com bubble his net worth reached about $78 billion in February 2000 before the crash erased $70 billion and cut SoftBank's market cap by 98% from $180 billion to $2.5 billion. Son rescued his fortunes with a $20 million Alibaba investment in 2000 that grew to $150 billion by 2020. He later raised $45 billion from Saudi Arabia for the Vision Fund, continued ties after Jamal Khashoggi's murder, and pursued large bets that produced losses at Uber and WeWork.
Read at TechCrunch
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