TWO years ago,if you had asked experts to identify the most influential person in technology, you would have heard some familiar names: Jeff Bezos of Amazon, or Alibaba’s Jack Ma or Facebooks notice Zuckerberg. nowadays there is a unique contender: Masayoshi Son. The founder of SoftBank,a Japanese telecoms and internet firm, has effect together an enormous investment fund that is busy gobbling up stakes in the world’s most exciting young companies. The Vision Fund is disrupting both the industries in which it invests and other suppliers of capital.
The fund is the result of a peculiar alliance forged in 2016 between Mr Son and Muhammad bin Salman. Saudi Arabia’s thrusting crown prince handed Mr Son $45bn as share of his attempt to diversify the kingdom’s economy. That great dollop of capital attracted more investors—from Abu Dhabi, and Apple and others. Add in SoftBank’s own $28bn of equity,and Mr Son has a war chest of $100bn. That far exceeds the $64bn that all venture capital (VC) funds...
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Source: economist.com