CEO and president of SoftBank Group Masayoshi Son delivers a briefing on the company’s earnings in Feb. 2020. Credit: The Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
Softbank, it seems, only has two modes: big wins and big losses. The international investment firm suffered billions in high-profile losses over the past year, and then its signature Vision Fund announced its best-ever quarter in September. The Japanese investor has also made big investments in China. This week, The Wire took a step back to see the plethora of investments that SoftBank has made over its nearly four decades — zooming in on some key investments and partners in China’s orbit.
Where SoftBank Plants Its Seeds
Number of companies in which SoftBank is actively invested, broken down by country. “Others” includes 25 more countries, such as the United Kingdom, Brazil, and Singapore, where SoftBank has 14, 14, and 12 investments, respectively.Data: Pitchbook
Though SoftBank is based in Japan, a majority of the companies it invests in are in the United States and China. The world’s two largest economies have each developed a hot startup
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