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SoftBank is a Japanese investment giant that owns big stakes in hundreds of technology companies and also runs a large telecom business in Japan.
SoftBank is best understood as a giant technology investment machine with a phone company attached. It sells mobile and broadband service in Japan, which throws off steady cash, but its real identity is as a worldwide owner of pieces of tech companies. It buys big stakes in startups and established firms, often before anyone else believes in them, and makes its money when those stakes rise in value or get sold.
Its best-known vehicle is the Vision Fund, a massive pool of money — much of it borrowed from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds — that SoftBank uses to bet on technology companies around the world. The list of companies it has backed reads like a tour of modern tech, from Alibaba and Arm to Uber and DoorDash. The Vision Fund's early years were spectacular, with big wins, but it later took painful losses as some bets soured and tech valuations fell. The way this works is almost like a giant treasure chest. SoftBank buys a slice of a company, hopes it grows, and then either holds it or sells it for more. Because so much of its wealth sits in shares rather than cash, its profits swing wildly from quarter to quarter, and its value is often measured as much by what its holdings would be worth as by what it earns in a year. It has also leaned heavily on debt to make these bets, which magnifies both the gains and the pain.
The most recent turning point has been Arm, the chip designer SoftBank took private in 2016 and later relisted on the Nasdaq. Arm's success has become a huge part of SoftBank's story, and the company has been using its position to build around AI and semiconductors. SoftBank is a company that swings for the fences with enormous sums and has more than once looked brilliant and reckless in the same decade.
Saved answer · last researched 5 Nov 2026