Masayoshi Son is man of extremes.
His $20 million bet on Alibaba Group Holding became the most successful of all time when it swelled to more than $70 billion after a decade. He also lost $70 billion of his net worth in the dotcom crash, but then managed to raise one of the biggest investment funds of all time ¡ª the $100 billion Vision Fund ¡ª in 2017. The 67-year-old has been on a roller coaster that would put most mortals in therapy for life.
He is unapologetically dramatic, once threatening to set himself on fire if he wasn¡¯t granted a telecom license in Japan and shoots from the hip in business deals. He says he backed Alibaba because of founder Jack Ma¡¯s ¡°strong eyes, shining eyes,¡± and he convinced the crown prince of Saudi Arabia to put $45 billion into his Vision Fund in a single, 45-minute conversation, by offering him ¡°a Masa gift, a trillion-dollar gift,¡± according to Son¡¯s 2017 interview with Bloomberg¡¯s David Rubinstein.
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