Masayoshi Son, massive layoffs

This moment has finally arrived.

According to Reuters, SoftBank Group will cut nearly 20% of the staff in its Vision Fund team globally, setting another record for large - scale layoffs in the venture capital history.

Subsequently, a spokesperson for the Vision Fund confirmed the layoff news: "We are constantly adjusting our organizational structure to best execute our long - term strategy." The remaining employees will continue to make new investments for the Vision Fund - they will focus more on Masayoshi Son's ambitious AI business.

Scaling back the front line and going all - in on AI, Masayoshi Son's decisive move is thought - provoking.

Major layoffs at the Vision Fund, scaling back the front line

A month ago, the Vision Fund reported its best performance in four years.

However, after a turnaround, Masayoshi Son announced layoffs at the Vision Fund. Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter, that SoftBank Group will cut nearly 20% of the staff in its Vision Fund team globally. Currently, the Vision Fund has more than 300 employees globally, which means more than 60 employees will leave.

The Vision Fund spokesperson confirmed the layoff news and said in a statement: "We are constantly adjusting our organizational structure to best execute our long - term strategy - making bold and firm investments in artificial intelligence and breakthrough technologies and creating long - term value for our stakeholders ."

Actually, this is not sudden.

For a long time in the past, Masayoshi Son's radical style made LPs have mixed feelings. Amid repeated losses, SoftBank also strategically adjusted its business focus frequently. "Every time, we faced criticism for lack of clear direction or were considered likely to go bankrupt soon," Masayoshi Son said in SoftBank's annual report for the fiscal year 2025.

After reflection, in his view, what really matters is the future. And the theme of this future is AI. "In the next 50 years, almost everything will be redefined: how we work, what kind of happiness we cherish, and our relationship with artificial intelligence itself." For this reason, Masayoshi Son proposed a new strategic goal - to make SoftBank the world's No. 1 ASI (Artificial Super - Intelligence) platform provider.

Actually, since 2020, Masayoshi Son has been emphasizing that "whoever controls AI controls the future." At that time, not many companies were concerned about AI, but he was already brewing an AI - oriented strategy. Until November 2022, Masayoshi Son announced that he would fully devote himself to the chip company ARM. Now this AI chip company has become an important cornerstone for SoftBank to enter the future world.

Venture capital is also an important means for SoftBank to layout the artificial intelligence landscape. Among them, the most sensational one is OpenAI. In the past 12 months, Masayoshi Son invested $9.7 billion in OpenAI through Vision Fund 2. It is reported that a $30 - billion financing will be in place by December this year. His bold investment is amazing. However, the progress of the $500 - billion "Stargate" project led by him and partners such as OpenAI is slow.

Recalling that in June 2024, Masayoshi Son sent an important signal at the annual general meeting - SoftBank will end its relatively dormant state and launch an offensive in the field of artificial intelligence. "The next project may be a great success or a complete failure, but SoftBank has no choice but to try." Another high - stakes gamble of this venture capital maverick has begun.

Once caused the biggest hole, slowing down

To this day, Masayoshi Son's figure in the venture capital circle is gradually fading away.

Looking back over the years, the way SoftBank and the Vision Fund under his leadership played in the primary market was impressive - using cash to change the rules of the game, willing to give high valuations, daring to give high valuations, and if the target refused investment, they would invest in its competitors. This overwhelming approach was invincible.

During that period, Masayoshi Son seemed to only give himself two options - either make a fortune or lose everything, and he spent his time and energy on blockbuster projects. This approach also helped Masayoshi Son acquire almost all the well - known super unicorns globally, showing a strong sense of determination.

However, looking at his investment history, except for Yahoo and Alibaba which made him famous overnight, most of the projects in his hands brought him a series of troubles and losses, such as WeWork, OYO, Uber... and the unicorns that collapsed after rising.

Remember the most difficult time: As of the end of March 2022, the Vision Fund had a net loss of 2.64 trillion yen in the fiscal year 2021, about 140 billion yuan; in August 2022, SoftBank recorded its largest loss since its establishment, among which a loss of up to 110 billion yuan came from the Vision Fund. "Almost all listed and unlisted stocks were wiped out," Masayoshi Son once summarized.

This was the biggest setback in his investment career. "We had several intense discussions internally, and later I figured it out myself," Masayoshi Son said. "The conclusion is that SoftBank must be in a defensive mode."

Subsequently, at the age of 65, Masayoshi Son broke his decades - long convention - saying goodbye to the stage of SoftBank's earnings conference and handing over the daily management of the group to executives such as CFO Yoshiaki Goto.

After changing the course, the Vision Fund has gradually recovered in recent years. As the latest financial report shows, in the first quarter (April - June) of the fiscal year 2025 - 2026, the Vision Fund department presented a beautiful "deep V" reversal curve - the investment income reached 726.837 billion yen, while it was only 1.911 billion yen in the same period last year, a year - on - year increase of 380 times; the pre - tax profit was 451.394 billion yen (about 22 billion yuan), while it even had a loss of about 10 billion yuan at this time last year.

After experiencing ups and downs, Masayoshi Son seems to cherish the present more. So we see these major layoffs at the Vision Fund - not seeking to spread out everywhere, but focusing personnel and energy on the most important things.

Reflection in the primary market, saying goodbye to "big and comprehensive"

A similar situation is also happening here.

Looking back, the Chinese venture capital industry has evolved from the TMT venture capital era to the consumer investment boom and is now moving deeper towards hard technology. The various changes it has experienced are quite thought - provoking.

"The venture capital industry in China has developed for 40 years. The overall investment logic of the industry has gradually shifted from focusing on financial analysis in the past to focusing more on technological thresholds, disruptiveness, and sustainability; from pursuing short - term returns to emphasizing long - term companionship, in - depth service, and professional empowerment; from verifying business models to paying more attention to the technological implementation path, the authenticity of scenarios, and real - world value," Zhang Jian, the vice - president of Shenzhen Capital Group, shared his insights at the 19th China Fund Partners Conference.

The flow of money also determines the flow of people. Along with the clearing of the primary market, we have witnessed the comings and goings in the industry. Some investor friends were eliminated due to decisions such as internal scale reduction and direction adjustment in institutions, and some people voluntarily chose to leave because they couldn't keep up with the industry changes.

All in all, the previous investment methods like shooting a machine gun or scattering pepper won't exist anymore. The current primary market investment is more focused, and VC/PE firms are no longer obsessed with being a big and comprehensive institution.

Looking at the overall situation, now everyone's investment is more obviously focused on building the Chinese - style modern industrial system and promoting the formation of new - quality productivity. Among them, artificial intelligence has almost become a must - choose topic for all investment institutions. A group of leading investment institutions have clearly conveyed their will to "go all - in on AI."

As one of the most active funds investing in AI in China, Kuang Ziping, the founding managing partner of Qiming Venture Partners, has expressed the importance of artificial intelligence more than once. He believes that artificial intelligence will bring great benefits to humanity and will also be the biggest investment opportunity in the next 10 years.

"The investment of about 100 - 200 million in artificial intelligence and embodied intelligence in the past saw the valuation increase to 2 billion in just two years, fully reflecting the investment enthusiasm in these fields," said Ding Baoyu, the managing partner and chief investment officer of Tongchuang Weiye. In his view, the AI field is indeed a long - term track that can change human history, just like the Internet back then, so we should invest boldly." However, this has also led to a problem: the track is becoming more and more crowded, and the homogeneous competition is approaching a white - hot stage.

Tides rise and fall, and people come and go. We should only cherish the present.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Investment World" (ID: pedaily2012), written by Zhou Jiali and Yu Mengying, and published by 36Kr with authorization.