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The Son Also Rises

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is among the most enigmatic and influential investors alive today. In a recent conversation at the Economic Club of New York, one of his biographers, the former FT editor Lionel Barber, offered a brisk primer on his legendary career.

Masayoshi Son
Barber’s path to Masa began a decade ago, during the process that led to Nikkei acquiring the FT for $1.3 billion, or 44x earnings—yes, that’s the real price paid for a real newspaper. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
William D. Cohan
February 2, 2025

Masayoshi Son, the multibillionaire founder of Japanese investment company SoftBank, is one of the most intriguing, if utterly mysterious, businessmen on the world stage. He rarely gives interviews but is prone to grandiose pronouncements and even more grandiose investments—some of which have gone completely off the rails (WeWork), and others that have worked spectacularly well (Alibaba). But with SoftBank reportedly considering a staggering investment of between $15 billion and $25 billion in OpenAI—in addition to his recent appearance with President Trump, Larry Ellison, and Sam Altman promoting a plan to invest $500 billion in U.S. A.I. infrastructure—Masa is suddenly very much in the news.