30 Mind-Blowing Facts About Masayoshi Son You Probably Didn’t Know Before

Masayoshi Son, a Korean-Japanese billionaire technology entrepreneur, investor and philanthropist, is the founder, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Japanese holding company SoftBank, CEO of SoftBank Mobile and chairman of UK-based Arm Holdings. He was ranked at #32 on the Forbes list of The World's Billionaires 2020 in July 2020. Here are some really interesting facts about the entrepreneur that will blow your mind away:

"File:Masayoshi Son (孫正義) on July 11, 2008.jpg" by Masaru Kamikura from Japan is licensed under CC BY 2.0

1.  Son was named the world's 45th most powerful person by Forbes Magazine's List of The World's Most Powerful People.
2.  As of October 2021, his estimated net worth is $23.1 billion, making him the second richest man in Japan, and the 68th richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
3.  This is despite having the distinction of losing the most money in history, approximately $70bn during the dot com crash of 2000.
4.  In September 2016, SoftBank acquired Arm Holdings for £24 billion ($34 billion) which would be the largest ever purchase of a European technology company.
5.  In 2020, SoftBank Group agreed to sell U.K. chip designer Arm Limited to U.S. chip-maker Nvidia in a cash and stock deal worth up to $40 billion.
6.  Masayoshi Son was born on August 11, 1957 in Tosu, a city in the eastern part of Saga Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan.
7.  He is a 3rd generation "Zainichi Korean", who are ethnic Koreans with permanent residency or citizenship in Japan. He naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1990.
8.  His grandfather Son Jong-kyung, who worked as a miner, moved from Daegu to Japan during the Japanese colonial period.
9.  His father Son Sam-heon worked as a fish dealer and pig farmer. His mother is also a Korean. During his childhood days, his family was very poor, to the extent that Son lived with pigs and sheep.
10.  He has three brothers and is the second oldest of the siblings in the family. His youngest brother, Taizo Son, is a serial entrepreneur and investor, having founded GungHo Online Entertainment and the venture capital firm Mistletoe.

"Masayoshi Son" by Danny Choo is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

11.  His family had adopted the Japanese surname Yasumoto, which he had used as a child. However, after returning to Japan from the United States, as a successful businessman, he decided to use his Korean surname instead and became a role model for ethnic Korean children in Japan.
12.  He decided to continue his studies in the United States, and moved to California, on the advice of Japanese McDonald’s manager Den Fujita.
13.  At age 16, following his move to California, he finished high school in three weeks, by taking the required exams at Serramonte High while staying with friends and family in South San Francisco.
14.  He attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in engineering. It was here that he started his first business endeavor, creating an electronic translator that he sold to Sharp Corporation for $1.7 million.
15.  At the age of 19, he was enamored by a microchip featured in a magazine, and became confident that computer technology would ignite the next commercial revolution.
16.  During his time in University of California, Berkeley, he made another $1.5 million by importing used video game machines from Japan, on credit and installing them in dormitories and restaurants.
17.  He graduated from Berkeley with a B.A. in Economics in 1980, and started Unison in Oakland, CA, which has since been bought by Kyocera.
18.  He was an early investor in internet firms, buying a share of Yahoo! in 1995 and investing a $20 million stake into Alibaba in 1999.
19.  Son's holding company SoftBank owns 29.5% of Alibaba, which is worth more than $110 billion. However, the company’s stake in Yahoo! had dwindled to 7%.
20.  He established Yahoo! BroadBand in September 2001 with Yahoo! Japan. Yahoo! BB acquired Japan Telecom, the then third largest broadband and landline provider, becoming the Japan's leading broadband provider.

"Masayoshi Son & Aya Ueto" by switchstyle is licensed under CC BY 2.0

21.  In the 2010s, through his holdings in SoftBank, Son bought a 76% share in Sprint. SoftBank has further accumulated shares in Sprint to about 84% ownership.
22.  It was announced that Son was investing in the biggest ever solar project, a 200GW development planned for Saudi Arabia as part of its Vision 2030, in March 2018.
23.  In the year 2011, he pledged to donate 10 billion yen ($120 million) and his remaining salary until retirement to support victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
24.  Following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster in 2011, he criticized the nuclear industry for creating "the problem that worries Japanese the most today."
25.  He met his wife Masami Ohno, while they were studying abroad in the United States. The couple have two daughters together.
26.  He resides in a three-story mansion that is valued at $50 million in Tokyo. The mansion has a golf range with technology to mimic the weather conditions and temperature of the world’s top golf courses.
27.  Apart from this residence, he also bought a home near Silicon Valley in Woodside, California, that cost him $117 million.
28.  In July 2018, coverage indicated that Son "would underwrite most of 100 GW" of a planned 275 GW of new renewable provision in India by 2027.
29.  He owns the SoftBank Hawks, a professional Japanese baseball team, who compete in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) as a member of the Pacific League.
30.  Through SoftBank Group’s investment vehicle, he established the $100 billion Vision Fund intended to invest in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and the internet of things, in the year 2017.
31.  Masayoshi Son Net Worth: $23 Billion