Masayoshi Son, the Japanese tycoon helming U.S. President Donald Trump's big new AI push, is the son of an immigrant pig farmer with a spectacular but also sketchy investment record.
Trump's "friend Masa" was born in Japan in 1957 to ethnic Korean parents who scratched a living rearing chickens and hogs while battling discrimination.
"We collected leftover food from neighbors and fed it to cattle. It was slimy. We worked hard," he said later. "And I've worked hard."
He went to the United States aged 16 and, while studying at Berkeley, developed a translation machine that he sold for around $1 million.
In his 20s, Son founded investment group SoftBank and made colossally successful early bets on Yahoo! and Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba in the 1990s.
The former reportedly made him -- for a few days -- the world's richest person and the latter seemed to cement his Midas Touch reputation.
"I could smell him. We are the same animal," Son said of Alibaba's founder Jack Ma.
Ma replied: "He probably has the biggest guts in the world on doing investments."
At his eagerly awaited news conferences, Son would show slides showing geese laying golden eggs and set out glorious visions for the future.
He launched his tech-focussed $100-billion Vision Fund investment vehicle in 2017, securing huge funding from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and others.
But Yahoo! and Alibaba proved to be the exceptions, not the rules, and many other Silicon Valley investments have failed, some spectacularly.
This included office-sharing firm WeWork, which went bankrupt, and the hospitality chain Oyo Rooms, and Son shied away from the limelight.
In the 2022-23 financial year, SoftBank's two Vision Funds posted a whopping 4.3 trillion yen ($32 billion at the time) in losses.
But the irrepressible Son, 67, decided to pivot to artificial intelligence (AI).
Key to the coming revolution, Son hopes, will be majority SoftBank-owned Arm, the British chip designer whose technology is in 99 percent of smartphones.
Son wants Arm to compete with the likes Nvidia -- the two are currently partners -- and make chips for AI processes.
Son promised SoftBank would invest $50 billion in the United States and create 50,000 jobs within Trump's first term.
Appearing alongside the U.S. president-elect in December, Son said he would now "double down" with $100 billion and generate employment for 100,000 Americans.
On Tuesday Son appeared at the White House along with Trump with OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman and Oracle founder Larry Ellison to announce Stargate.
The aim is to build infrastructure to develop AI with an initial $100 billion and reaching $500 billion during Trump's second term, Son said.
Son will be chairman, SoftBank will be responsible for financing and OpenAI for operations. Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle and OpenAI will provide the technology.
"This is the beginning of a golden age for America," Son said, predicting artificial general intelligence (AGI), a benchmark of human-level intelligence, "very very soon."
"After that artificial super intelligence will come to solve the issues that mankind never ever would have thought could be solved," he said.
SoftBank shares soared on the announcement, adding 10.6 percent on Wednesday in Tokyo.
"Masa has his mojo back," said Kirk Boodry, a SoftBank analyst at Astris Advisory.
"Inevitably, there are going to be questions about how Softbank funds this but we expect they will be able to pull in limited partners (likely Middle Eastern money as they did with Vision Fund) whilst asset sales are very likely on the agenda," Boodry said in a note.
Amir Anvarzadeh from Asymmetric Advisors was less sure, saying that Son and Trump "both like numbers".
"Unless SoftBank sells its stake in Arm, which is massively overvalued anyway, where is all the money going to come from?"
© 2025 AFP
21 Comments
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Agent_Neo
Son Masayoshi? He's a former Korean resident of Japan, and he said he'd donate $100 million to the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami to gain popularity, but he's a liar who didn't donate anything in the end.
To begin with, Son Masayoshi is stuck with investing, and the company is heavily in debt, not to mention personally.
I don't think he's a very trustworthy person, do you?
At the very least, I don't want people to think of him as a Japanese person.
JeffLee
"Midas Touch" ?!? Is that a joke? Until Musks's Twitter fiasco, Son had the distinction of losing more money than any human in history, during the dot.com bubble.
This time, he is fueled by 10s of billions of dollars handed over by the Saudis, whose source of wealth is a freak of nature that placed massive amounts of cred oil under their feet. Meanwhile, Vision Funds are underperforming amid a huge tech boom.
The_Beagle
Every headline for the next four years. Trump...
kurisupisu
Masayoshi Son appears on stage and is praised and applauded by the leader of the only world superpower?
I would say that is an impressive accolade.
But what a massive letdown for Japan which would have benefitted from the enormous amounts of money as investments!
factchecker
Midas touch meaning massaging trumple thinskins ego and derriere?
owzer
Trump not only got Son to double his initial offer but ended up getting five times the amount from Son.
Excellent work!!
Blacklabel
Fiasco? owning and controlling X was worth every dollar spent. It’s not like he doesn’t have any other money.
the value of that control is priceless.
Peter Neil
son has a history of shoving more money at people than they ask for. people who urinate it away. in the past year, anyone who puts ai in any 5 minute pitch gets money.
he’s a reckless gambler. he got his start getting a professor in the u.s. to build a handheld translator and he’d market it in japan. professor delivered, son made a ton of money selling the rights to a japanese electronics maker. the professor has never seen 1 yen or 1 penny. he has a reputation as conman.
there are a lot questions about this ai deal. trump has said he wants to pull all safety bumpers on ai development. not a good idea.
i'm in the camp that the ai valuation bubble will burst, they all do, and the taxpayer will end up holding the bag. the consumer is going be gouged building the power infrastructure.
wallace
Son Masayoshi is a third-generation Zainichi Korean, he naturalized as a Japanese citizen in 1990.
Ken
You mean the hate and misinformation spread around is what you and them value, you like people being ignorant to the truth and you prefer chaos and pain over world peace
iknowall
Leaders in politics and business understand the value of Trump.
kurisupisu
Anyone looking at this on a mobile phone in Japan?
Then you can thank Mr Son for battling NTT and the various ministries in Japan to open access to other companies to serve the Japanese people.
GBR48
I think there is less of a business case for all this than there was for WeWork. And probably less due diligence.
The AI bubble is a massively oversold fad. As I said in another post, the tech industry is trying to work like a drug cartel, addicting everyone to an unreliable technology that they do not need.
I have no desire to use AI and less to ever pay for it. I don't think there are enough users/addicts/mugs out there to bring in a profit on these vast expenditures.
I guess a lot of this is PR and diplomacy. The passion of old men for big numbers. Promises of tech investment in the US haven't always come to pass. But perhaps it will save Japan a few Yen in protection money for a bit.
Peter Neil
son had nothing to do with transfer of phone numbers between carriers and opening competition.
this is what i find disheartening. everything is about money, but nothing is about making peoples lives better. we suck as a species.
the u.s. is now 30th in the world in iq. mongolia has a higher iq than the u.s.
the proliferation of chemicals in daily life is a serious threat. autism and adhd are climbing.
in vitro exposure is clinically proven to harm children. the consumption of plastics and a exposure to dangerous chemical by the mother takes only a tiny dose to affect a fetus.
everything is infested with chemicals. mattresses, carpets, furniture, clothing, food and yet, no testing equivalent to drug testing is required.
instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on ai, how about spending zero by mandating restrictions on chemicals?
the chemical industry is 25% of the u.s. gdp.
read that again and realize that no one is looking out for people. they’re only looking out for people to make a buck.
gokai_wo_maneku
Developing AI means we'll all lose our jobs.
Ricky Kaminski13
Talk about an awesome rags-to-riches story! I never knew Sonsan came from such humble beginnings! Son of an immigrant pig farmer who used to scrape and collect scraps to feed his animals! Woh baby. That's a legacy right there. Inspired.
The old saying goes well here. You simply can't keep a good man down.
Will be watching the space for sure. Onya Masa!
travelbangaijin
This explains everything - I was wondering he don't invest in Japan, he probably was treated bad and looking at the likes of Trump as friends
garymalmgren
Hi Wallace.
Maybe you have a better idea than me.
Could you explain why you post was voted down?
gary
GuruMick
Trump has a "buddy "
Nah....fake news
Ricky Kaminski13
Guru , my man! Keep repeating this to yourself mate.
Success is the enemy of righteousness.
Success is the enemy of righteousness.
Suits you to a lipton! Gurus need mantras. You'll sleep like a baby.
Hope this gets to you before the moderators come to the rescue.
bogva
Son doing business! Like the previous time when he was shaking the hand of the Saudi prince. It's all business for him but somehow he is first in line to get close to the political leaders...