Masayoshi Son-An Astrological Perspective

ON OCTOBER 31, 1999, in Beijing, a Korean investor took a leap of faith on the dream of a young Chinese entrepreneur who wanted to build a digital Yellow Pages for China.

- Vikkramm Chandirramani

Ignoring the advice of his team, the investor paid $20 million for a 30 percent stake in the fledgling venture. Just two years later, that stake had ballooned in value to $70 billion. The investor was none other than the legendary Masayoshi Son, and the entrepreneur he backed was Jack Ma - then an unknown founder, just beginning his journey with Alibaba.

Masayoshi Son is one of the most visionary and daring entrepreneurs of our time - a man whose blend of foresight, relentless work ethic, razor-sharp business acumen, and willingness to place audacious bets sets him apart even in the elite league of global tech pioneers.

In Son, one finds the intense focus and product obsession of Steve Jobs, the strategic brilliance and systems thinking of Bill Gates, the scale-driven ambition of Jeff Bezos, the moonshot mindset of Elon Musk, and the aggressive investment instinct of Warren Buffett - all wrapped into one.

In 1981, at just 24, he founded SoftBank as a software distribution company. Within two years, SoftBank commanded a 75 per cent share of Japan's software distribution market. His journey was briefly interrupted in 1982 by a serious illness, but he returned with renewed energy and expanded into publishing, launching tech magazines that educated Japan's growing computing audience.

This strategic move boosted software sales and helped SoftBank become the country's top tech publisher - a sign of Son's ability to integrate media, distribution, and education into a larger vision.

Fast forward to 2010: in a 133-slide investor presentation in Tokyo, Son predicted that computer chips would one day surpass the complexity of the human brain - a claim met with skepticism at the time. Today, that prediction has largely materialised. AI models running on chips from Nvidia and ARM (both backed by SoftBank) have pushed boundaries once thought unreachable.