After Son emptied Ali in a big way, he earned more than $80 billion in four days.
Masayoshi Son is back, and with the explosion of the global AI industry, he turned things around. In recent years, Son has also suffered a lot of losses, from WeWork, Uber to OYO, Didi, it can be said that Son has stepped on some of the world's largest landmines. The company cost Mr. Son tens of billions of dollars.
Due to the failure of the investment, Son had to continue to ** Ali shares. When Alibaba went public, SoftBank still held more than 20% of the shares. But over the past decade, Son has been relentless. Especially in the past three years, SoftBank's liabilities have exceeded one trillion yuan, plus continuous losses. Son had to ** Ali's stake in order to maintain the company's cash flow.
SoftBank has all but emptied its stake in Alibaba. At the peak of SoftBank's glory, Alibaba's market value was around 200 billion yuan. Back then, Son Masayoshi invested 60 million yuan in exchange for such a rich return, which also made him a god.
But after successfully investing in Alibaba, Son also stepped on a lot of landmines. But now, Son has turned the tables around. Over the past year, the U.S.** has been on a rise, especially in the artificial intelligence industry, led by NVIDIA. Arm, in which Son owns 90 percent, has also been affected by the rise of NVIDIA and has been climbing in market value.
Many people may not know what kind of company ARM is? Arm is a strategically important company in the global chip industry. Chips need to go through three processes: design, testing, and production. When designing chips, every company in the world must use ARM's architecture. As a result, every integrated circuit company in the world has to pay royalties to Arm Corporation.
Over the past few years, ARM has made between $500 million and $600 million in annual profits. From a profit standpoint, ARM is not a very profitable company. But from a strategic point of view, ARM is a very important company. That's why Son was willing to spend more than $30 billion to buy Arm a few years ago.
In 2023, as the sales of chip companies such as NVIDIA soared, Arm followed suit with increased revenue and profits. As revenue and profits increased, so did ARM's market capitalization. Since 2022, ARM's market capitalization has grown fivefold. In recent days, the market capitalization has quadrupled in four days following the publication of the results of the report by ARM. Today, the market capitalization has exceeded 160 billion yuan.
This means that in 4 days, ARM's market capitalization increased by 80 billion yuan. Combined with Son's 90% stake, the market value of their stake exceeds 140 billion yuan. In other words, Masayoshi Son earned more than 80 billion yuan in 4 days.
In short, the money Son made in four days made up for his previous losses in several companies. In this way, Masayoshi Son turned over again. Nowadays, the global artificial intelligence industry is developing rapidly, and artificial intelligence models require a large number of chips to support computing power. In other words, the more chips sold globally, the more revenue ARM will naturally increase.
Masayoshi Son is a legend in the global business world. He was born in Japan, studied in the United States, and earned his first pot of gold by distributing game consoles during college. After that, he returned to Japan to set up his own company, founded the SoftBank Group, and began to venture into the investment field.
Son first made his mark in technology when he invested in Yahoo more than 20 years ago. When Yahoo was first founded, Son invested 1200 million yuan and became a major shareholder of the company. Later, Yahoo's market capitalization skyrocketed to more than 130 billion yuan in the global internet boom.
SoftBank's market capitalization is also growing. In 2000, Son's worth of more than 80 billion yuan surpassed Bill Gates to become the world's richest man in a matter of minutes.
It was also in this year that Son successfully invested in Alibaba again. After his success in the U.S. tech sector, Son set his sights on China. He has invested in several start-up technology companies in China, including Alibaba.
At that time, Son invested 60 million yuan in Alibaba, an investment that earned SoftBank about 200 billion yuan. 2016 was a turning point in Son's life. Later that year, Son launched the Vision** initiative, which aims to raise $100 billion per and more tranches.
Alibaba's successful IPO in 2014 brought Son fame and fortune. So when he decided to raise his first tranche in 2017, $100 billion came easily. But the vision** ended up failing in many investment projects. Masayoshi Son continues to step on the landmines of the capital market.
It has been desperate to find a second Alibaba, but after so many years, it has not been able to find it, and it has paid a huge price for it. Since 2017, SoftBank has been mired in losses, debt, and other problems.
Son also had to put the company in a state of shock, reducing foreign investment and increasing cash reserves. At present, SoftBank has accumulated more than 30 billion yuan in cash. Today, the company is slowly coming out of the woods. While ARM's market capitalization has grown dramatically, Son has also managed to turn things around.