Masayoshi Son once held the title of the richest man in the world, surpassing even Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, and other billionaires. Today, Forbes estimates his net worth at approximately $23 billion, which pales in comparison to Mukesh Ambani's $92 billion and Gautam Adani's $50 billion. For those unfamiliar, Masayoshi Son is the founder, chairman, and CEO of SoftBank Group, an investment holding company that made significant bets on Indian startups such as Ola, Oyo, and Paytm. In addition, he runs the Vision Funds, which have attracted investments from giants like Apple, Qualcomm, Foxconn, Larry Ellison, and Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
Born in Japan as a third-generation Zainichi Korean, Son's father was involved in illegal businesses, and the family was the first in their town to own a car. After completing his early education in Japan, Son moved to the U.S. for further studies. He graduated from Berkeley in 1980 with a B.A. in Economics and soon launched his own video game company, Unison World, which he sold for about $2 million. With that capital, he founded SoftBank in 1981.
Son was an early investor in companies like Yahoo and Alibaba, a move that briefly made him the wealthiest person globally before a stock market crash brought his net worth down from $78 billion (5856175 crore) to just $8 billion. Despite many of his investments underperforming, Son reestablished himself as one of Japan's wealthiest individuals after acquiring Vodafone Japan in 2006. His current net worth is $23 billion.
