SoftBank Group Corp.
Leadership History
3 leaders · 1981 to present
Masayoshi Son is the CEO of SoftBank, in the role since 1981.
| Name | Role | From | To | Years in role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ken Miyauchi | Former CEO of SoftBank Corp | 2015 | 2021 | 6 |
| Yoshimitsu Goto | Board Director, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO | 2000 | Present | 26 |
| Masayoshi Son | Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer | 1981 | Present | 45 |
SoftBank Group Corp. (TSE: 9984) is a Japanese holding company that owns and finances technology businesses rather than selling a single product. Its main holdings are a controlling stake in SoftBank Corp., a majority of Arm Holdings, the Vision Fund portfolios, and about 13% of OpenAI. Founder Masayoshi Son is chairman and CEO and the largest individual shareholder. The group had 73,677 consolidated employees as of March 31, 2026, and a market capitalization of about $220 billion in late September 2026. The company is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
SoftBank Group makes money in two ways. Operating revenue comes mainly from SoftBank Corp. (TSE: 9434), its consolidated Japanese mobile, broadband, enterprise and fintech subsidiary, which reported FY2025 revenue of ~$47.2 billion (JPY 7.04 trillion). Arm Holdings (Nasdaq: ARM), majority-owned by SoftBank, adds licensing and royalty revenue from its CPU designs. The second and much more volatile engine is investment gains: changes in the fair value of the Vision Fund portfolios, the OpenAI stake and listed holdings, plus proceeds when assets are sold. SoftBank funds new bets with cash, bonds, margin loans backed by Arm and SoftBank Corp. shares, and asset sales. In 2025-2026 those sales included its whole Nvidia stake and, per Q1 FY2026 disclosures, 71.5% of its TSMC holding.
Former CEO of SoftBank Corp
2015 – 2021
6 years
Miyauchi successfully orchestrated the $21 billion IPO of SoftBank Corp (the domestic Japanese telecom business) to generate massive liquidity for the broader Vision Fund.
As the long-time head of the domestic telecom division, he provided the stable, massive cash flows that allowed Masayoshi Son to pursue highly speculative tech investments.
Board Director, Senior Executive Vice President and CFO
2000 – Present
26 years (current)
Goto aggressively managed SoftBank's complex debt structure and drove massive asset sales (like Alibaba shares and the Arm IPO) to defend the company against severe margin calls.
As CFO, he is the financial architect tasked with keeping the massive conglomerate solvent despite the catastrophic multi-billion dollar write-downs of the Vision Fund.
Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer
1981 – Present
45 years (current)
Son has been instrumental in the company's strategic evolution, spearheading the acquisitions of Vodafone Japan and ARM Holdings, and orchestrating the creation of the $100 billion Vision Fund, changing the company's business model and unlocking shareholder value.
SoftBank's main challenge is concentration. Its value now depends heavily on two assets, Arm and OpenAI, and the OpenAI stake is private, so its carrying value rests on funding-round prices rather than a market quote. Paying for the $30 billion OpenAI follow-on, completed on October 1, 2026, meant issuing large amounts of high-yield bonds (one 2026 deal raised about $11.1 billion at coupons up to 9.75%) and selling liquid holdings such as Nvidia and most of its TSMC shares. That raises leverage and interest costs at the parent. Other risks include US-China export controls that could hit Arm's royalty base, the execution risk of AI data center projects such as Stargate, and key-person dependence on Masayoshi Son, who was born in 1957 and has no clear successor.
Masayoshi Son has served as Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of SoftBank Group Corp. since founding the company in September 1981.
Masayoshi Son was born in Tosu, Saga Prefecture, Japan, in 1957 to an ethnic Korean family. He moved to the United States for high school and graduated with a degree in economics and computer science from UC Berkeley, where he invented a digital translating device that he sold to Sharp for $1 million before returning to Japan.
Yoshimitsu Goto serves as Board Director, Senior Executive Vice President, and Chief Financial Officer of SoftBank Group Corp. Goto is the financial guardian who oversees liquidity management, bond issuances, and strict adherence to the <25% LTV policy.
Nikesh Arora, former Chief Business Officer at Google, was hired in 2014 as President and designated successor. In 2016, when Son decided he was having too much fun to retire at age 60, Arora amicably departed, later becoming the celebrated CEO of Palo Alto Networks.
Marcelo Claure, founder of Brightstar, served as CEO of Sprint and Chief Operating Officer of SoftBank Group. Claure orchestrated the Sprint/T-Mobile merger, turned around WeWork post-crash, and founded the SoftBank Latin America Fund before departing in 2022.
Rajeev Misra, a veteran debt structuring banker from Deutsche Bank, was the primary architect who helped Son raise the $100 billion Vision Fund from Saudi Arabia and served as CEO of SoftBank Investment Advisers until stepping back in 2022.
René Haas is the Chief Executive Officer of Arm Holdings and serves as an Executive Director on the Board of Directors of SoftBank Group Corp., guiding global semiconductor strategy.
In landmark earnings presentations in 2019 and 2020, Son famously projected slide decks illustrating weeping figures, openly admitting: "My own investment judgment was really bad. I have a lot of regrets."
Son is renowned for dramatic, visual earnings slide decks featuring metaphorical animals (unicorns, geese laying golden eggs), philosophical equations, and futuristic graphics illustrating the timeline toward the technological singularity.
Masayoshi Son has been repeatedly named one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, Forbes' World's Most Powerful People, and Bloomberg 50 icons.
While Son previously pledged to retire in his 60s, the explosion of generative AI and the Arm triumph revitalized his passion. In 2024, Son declared he plans to remain CEO for years to come to realize Artificial Superintelligence (ASI).
Son has stated repeatedly that his singular life mission is to advance the evolution of humanity by harnessing technology and AI to alleviate suffering and unlock human potential: "Information Revolution — Happiness for Everyone."
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