Masayoshi Son, founder, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank Group, is ranked No. 36 on the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list with a net worth of $51.5 billion. He is known for an early $20 million bet on Alibaba.
Masayoshi Son was born Masayoshi Yasumoto on August 11, 1957, in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan, to Zainichi Korean parents. His grandfather had moved from Daegu to Japan during the colonial period to work as a miner, and his father raised pigs and chickens.
Net Worth and Rank
- Forbes 2026 list: No. 36, with $51.5 billion
- Stake: as of December 2022 he held 34.2% of SoftBank, according to Wikipedia
Building SoftBank
Son founded SoftBank in 1981 as a software distributor and publisher of computer magazines and books. The business grew through the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s into publishing and telecommunications in Japan. It later turned into SoftBank Group, a technology investment company.
The Alibaba Bet
- 2000: he invested $20 million in Alibaba Group
- 2014: after Alibaba’s share sale the stake was valued at around $75 billion
- 2018: SoftBank’s 27% stake was worth $132 billion, including shares bought later
Big Bets and Big Losses
Son is known for bold investments that have sometimes produced major losses, particularly in SoftBank’s first and second Vision Funds. For many years he held the record for losing the most money in history: more than $59 billion during the dot-com crash of 2000, when SoftBank’s shares plummeted, a record later passed by Elon Musk, according to Wikipedia.
Arm and Stargate
Son is chairman of the UK-based chip designer Arm Holdings and of the US-based Stargate LLC.
Recognition
Forbes placed him 45th on its list of the world’s most powerful people in 2013, and he was named Entrepreneur of the Year at The Asian Awards in 2017.
Why It Matters
SoftBank is one of the largest technology investors in the world, and its stakes in companies such as Arm and Alibaba make Son’s wealth highly sensitive to technology valuations.
Net worth figures change daily with share prices. Rankings here follow the Forbes 2026 World’s Billionaires list, with wealth measured on March 1, 2026.
Image: Masayoshi Son speaking at a SoftBank event in 2008. Photo: nobihaya / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
