Masayoshi Son: How does the coronavirus impact the billionaire’s 300-year plan?

This appeared in The Millennial Source

Masayoshi Son, the founder and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese telecom and investment giant, has long attracted attention due to his enigmatic personality and bold investments, supposedly based on his “300-year plan” for the company and the future of humanity.

Recent difficulties surrounding some of SoftBank’s failed “Vision Fund” investments and the dramatic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, however, may make the next few months, not 300 years, a priority if Son’s vision is to be reached.

Beginnings

Born in 1957 to Korean immigrants to Japan, Son’s rise to billionaire status reads like a manual on prescient investments. Having studied in the United States at UC Berkeley, Son sold his first company at just 21 years old, a multilingual translator bought by Sharp Corporation for US$1.7 million.

Son’s breakthrough, however, and the wealth he has accumulated to date, came with the founding of SoftBank. SoftBank, originally a telecommunications company, now earns its wealth as a global investment specialist. A savvy US$20 million investment in Alibaba in 2000 earned Son more than US$100 billion in return and the 30 percent…