TECH THE NINE LIVES OF MASAYOSHI SON

THE FIRST DAYS of the second Trump administration offered the newly elected president a chance to share the spotlight with some of his most important allies. While some of the featured leaders were ones you'd expect—cabinet nominees, congressional leaders, mega-donor Elon Musk—at least one was a surprise: Masayoshi Son, the Japanese billionaire tech investor.

- CLAY CHANDLER

The occasion for Son’s star turn in the White House Roosevelt Room on Jan. 21 was an announcement that SoftBank Group, Son's Tokyo-based conglomerate, would put up most of the funding for Stargate, an ambitious partnership with OpenAI and Oracle that aims to turbocharge American leadership in artificial intelligence. Flanked by Oracle chairman Larry Ellison and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and standing on a box to be seen above the lectern, Son promised Trump that Stargate would invest a staggering $500 billion to build a nationwide network of data centers, power plants, and research centers. Trump lavished praise on “my friend Masa” for bankrolling “the largest AI infrastructure by far in history.”

“This the beginning of a golden age for America,” Son told Trump. “We wouldn't have decided [to invest] unless you won.”

It’s also a golden age for gambling on AI, and Son seems determined to be the table's highest roller. SoftBank is leading a funding round of $40 billion for OpenAI, valuing it at $260 billion, in what could be a record single round for a private company. If finalized, that investment would position SoftBank as OpenAI’s largest shareholder. Meanwhile, SoftBank and OpenAI are launching a joint venture to develop and market AI in Japan.

The surge is all the more striking because in some circles Son is best known for his failures. Indeed, the last time Son loomed so large in global headlines was in 2022, when his Vision Fund posted a $27 billion loss and teetered on the brink of collapse. Among its most spectacular debacles: office-sharing startup WeWork, for which the fund was forced to write down $14 billion.