Masayoshi Son

On January 21, 2025, Masayoshi Son appeared at the White House Roosevelt Room alongside Larry Ellison and Sam Altman to announce Stargate, a joint venture between SoftBank, OpenAI, and Oracle. Son promised Trump that Stargate would invest $500 billion to build a nationwide network of AI data centers and power plants. Son was named Chairman of the Stargate Project.

Masayoshi Son appeared at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence on December 16, 2024 to announce a $100 billion investment in the US over four years, promising 100,000 jobs focused on AI. Son stated 'My confidence level to the economy of the United States has tremendously increased with his victory.' This doubled his 2016 pledge of $50 billion after Trump's first election.

In November 2022, it was revealed that Masayoshi Son personally owed SoftBank Group Corp $4.7 billion (later rising to $5.1 billion by February 2023) on side deals he had set up to increase his personal compensation while the Vision Fund posted record losses. Son held more than 30% stake in SoftBank and structured these arrangements as 'remuneration for investment expertise' in lieu of investment fees. Governance experts and activist investor Elliott Management criticized this as a clear conflict of interest, but Son denied wrongdoing.

In 2019, activist investor Elliott Management built a 3% stake in SoftBank and demanded governance reforms, citing that the company was trading 50% below fair value due to poor governance - a tame board, overcomplicated corporate structure, and lack of transparency. Masayoshi Son rejected the reforms and compared himself to historical conquerors: 'Napoleon or Genghis Khan or Emperor Qin [builder of the Great Wall of China]. I am not a CEO.' This response highlighted Son's autocratic leadership style and resistance to corporate accountability.