
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Speaks to an Almost Empty Room at Saudi Summit - ryan_j_naughton
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-10-30/softbank-s-son-speaks-to-an-almost-empty-room-at-saudi-summit
======
tim333
The title's a bit clickbait. He was one member of a panel in one segment of a
fairly dull and sparsely attended investment conference. It took me ages to
track down when he even appeared but here it is for what it's worth:

Program:
[https://futureinvestmentinitiative.com/en/programs/solving-t...](https://futureinvestmentinitiative.com/en/programs/solving-
the-unsolvable-how-investors-and-entrepreneurs-can-advance-the-movement-
toward-deep-tech)

Video:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UWx1hbhpOU&feature=youtu.be...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UWx1hbhpOU&feature=youtu.be&t=14920)

~~~
whatok
[https://twitter.com/alialsalim/status/1189884241523412993](https://twitter.com/alialsalim/status/1189884241523412993)

"Watch Softbank chief Masayoshi Son fall asleep during a panel at the Future
Investment Initiative in Saudi yesterday..."

~~~
tim333
Reading some of the program description

>Urgent questions? What frameworks for collaboration between corporations and
startups will drive these technologies from ideation to commercialization? How
will investors spot keystone technologies with the potential to address large-
scale global challenges?

I can kind of understand that

------
hn_throwaway_99
Lots of comments about how people are avoiding SoftBank because of their big
losses, but I think the bigger aspect at play is more investors are coming to
view these mega funds _in general_ as a bad idea.

That is, when you're sitting on $100 billion dollars, you're going to spend
it, even if to grifters like Adam Neumann. I think more folks are coming to
the realization that there is just too much money chasing to few deals, and
more money isn't the solution.

~~~
tempsy
It's a good time to actually be a founder right now. Too many people just want
to sit around and write checks.

I hope the US creates a sovereign wealth fund. Not only would it likely make
raising money more meritocratic but it would likely make a bunch of the low to
mid tier VC firms go away.

~~~
hn_throwaway_99
> I hope the US creates a sovereign wealth fund.

Umm, and where would that "wealth" come from?? The US national debt is over 22
trillion dollars.

~~~
georgeecollins
US households hold $113 trillion dollars in assets, so I wouldn't start
passing the cup around.

[https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/25/six-
facts...](https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2019/06/25/six-facts-about-
wealth-in-the-united-states/)

~~~
paulddraper
> US households

> sovereign wealth fund

No one is passing about a cup.

A _sovereign_ wealth fund is owned by the state.

A _private_ wealth fund is owned by people and corporation; e.g. "households".

------
unlinked_dll
>Man who spent $10 billion to bring a company to an $8 billion valuation
ignored at financial conference

~~~
chewz
Softbank spent $18 billion according to Marcelo Claure.[1]

[1] [https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/24/softbank-notes-it-has-
now-...](https://techcrunch.com/2019/10/24/softbank-notes-it-has-now-
invested-18-5-billion-in-wework-more-than-the-gdp-of-bolivia-which-
has-11-5-million-people/)

~~~
chrisjc
Some of that money is Vision money, some of it is Softbank.

~~~
chewz
If Saudis can chop a journalist at their embassy just imagine what they are
going to do to Son.

~~~
geodel
Give him avocado rolls on sushi platter?

------
RcouF1uZ4gsC
It’s amazing how a reputation for lighting money on fire makes investors avoid
you.

~~~
piva00
Lest not forget that this isn't Masayoshi Son's first ride on ligthing money
on fire, he still holds the record of most money lost in history from the dot-
com bubble crash of the 2000s.

~~~
onlyrealcuzzo
Well, he was also the richest person in the world for 3 days in 2000.

I'm as skeptical of the vision fund as anyone. But it's pretty impressive to
go from nothing to the richest person in the world. Lose the most money in
history (still being a multi-billionaire, though), and in the span of 20
years, 10x your fortune AGAIN -- to be again one of the richest people in the
world.

If anything, that's an impressive story -- at least to me.

~~~
tim333
He's an interesting guy. Here he talks about making his first million while a
student at Berkley
[https://youtu.be/\--dReMGY_WY?t=459](https://youtu.be/--dReMGY_WY?t=459)

He's showing signs of making some of the losses back already:
[https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-ipo-
breakingvie...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bytedance-ipo-
breakingviews/breakingviews-tiktok-calls-the-tune-for-softbanks-comeback-tour-
idUSKBN1X905C)

I wouldn't write him off just because he got a little conned on WeWork.

~~~
lotsofpulp
>I wouldn't write him off just because he got a little conned on WeWork.

I'm not able to believe a guy with Son's record gets conned by WeWork. I'd say
Son was trying to con others, but got caught holding the bag.

~~~
tim333
I'm reminded a bit of his investment in Alibaba - when he met Jack Ma he says
he had no business plan or revenue but he could tell he had charisma and
leadership and so invested. I guess he tried to do similar with Adam but it
didn't work out quite the same.

------
tootie
Who attends these events anyway? What do they say on stage that you can't read
off of their website? I lucked into tickets to some event that was near my
office to listen to some panel of business titans talk about sustainability or
something and it was just some half-baked sales pitches and posturing.

------
Donald
Isn't Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund a significant client of SoftBank?
Interesting development.

~~~
stefan_
The biggest, I think.

~~~
umeshunni
The contributed $45B of the $100B in the fund

------
rossdavidh
Cannot blame the Saudis one bit, but...this might be the sound of a tech
investment bubble bursting. Which means many of the readers of HN, even the
ones like me who never worked at a SB-backed company, will find the employment
market in 2020 to be much less favorable than it has been in 2019.

------
tempsy
Would love to see a stack rank of SoftBank investments from best to worst.

On the surface Nuro looks cool but now it makes you second guess knowing SB
invested $1B in them...

------
sabujp
there's a hack to getting around the bloomberg paywall. If you scroll down
quickly before the page can bring up the pay us to read dialog you can get a
greyed out version of the text. Then use ublock to zap the top modal out of
the way. If you need to read the rest of the text reload again and scroll down
faster.

~~~
disgruntledphd2
Or one could disable Javascript? (WFM on FF with uBlock Origin).

------
wyxuan
Can’t help but admit that this is a little sad.

------
RonaldDR
Quick Poll:

Does this Softbank/WeWork unraveling make you nervous about the whole Silicon
Valley system unzipping too? (Vote Below)

~~~
RonaldDR
No, I am not worried at all. This is fine.

