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The $100B Bet: The Meaning of the Vision Fund (economist.com)
Two years ago, if you had asked experts to identify the most influential person in technology, you would have heard some familiar names: Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Alibaba's Jack Ma or Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg. Today there is a new contender: Masayoshi Son. The founder of SoftBank, a Japanese telecoms and internet firm, has put together an enormous investment fund that is busy gobbling up stakes in the world's most exciting young companies. The Vision Fund is disrupting both the industries in which it invests and other suppliers of capital [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled; an alternative source wasn't immediately available]. From a report: But even if the fund ends up flopping, it will have several lasting effects on technology investing. The first is that the deployment of so much cash now will help shape the industries of the future. Mr Son is pumping money into "frontier technologies" from robotics to the internet of things. He already owns stakes in ride-hailing firms such as Uber; in WeWork, a co-working company; and in Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce firm that was this week sold to Walmart. In five years' time the fund plans to have invested in 70-100 technology unicorns, privately held startups valued at $1bn or more. Its money, often handed to entrepreneurs in multiples of the amounts they initially demand and accompanied by the threat that the cash will go to the competition if they balk, gives startups the wherewithal to outgun worse-funded rivals. Mr Son's bets do not have to pay off for him to affect the race. Mr Son's second impact will be on the venture-capital industry. To compete with the Vision Fund's pot of moolah, and with the forays of other unconventional investors, incumbents are having to bulk up.
Because Ultron Fund failed?
just a bunch of businessmen. The most "influential" are guys who go around buying up companies and using tech other people developed.
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The famous observation that the rich are black holes of money remains true.
Softbank is just a bunch of rich people wasting oil money. Most of the money comes from Saudi Arabia.
Uber; in WeWork, and in Flipkart,
Kind of late to the party there. These guys are already done doing whatever disrupting they're going to do.
How about finding some new ideas that need investment?
Maybe he can find some bio firms and CRISPER all up in that beeotch, but that bandwagon is already well under way. Maybe neural interfaces & mind uploading might be fertile fields.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
just a bunch of businessmen. The most "influential" are guys who go around buying up companies and using tech other people developed.
Tech is not influential if it sits on the shelf. Great ideas often go nowhere until someone puts some money behind them.
But it means having a scientist who is both competent and financially ruthless.
There are a few players on the scene who may qualify as scientists or engineers, but they are dramatically fewer than the businessmen or successful trust fund babies.
which is why the government funds science. Albeit in the most round about way possible in the States.
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By law, you are not allowed to raise capital unless you pay lawyers a million dollars to get past the laws emplaced to protect the rich from competition by the poor. Softbank can beat this phony capitalism (actually communism) hands down.
... with its piss poor track record of forecasting global affairs. (And local too.) Written for IYIs to give them an illusion they are being better informed about this world of ours.
The cover is more or less the only thing of value in that magazine, artistically speaking.
I have worked at two Son/Softbank-funded companies. He won big with Alibaba, but results are iffy otherwise. But they don't really care about money: the goal is to siphon intellectual property as it appears, often paving the way for China's (military's) sovereign wealth fund to invest in later stages. It's also a way to socialize the US hedge funds and institutional investors, by creating common interests. Then it becomes much, much harder politically or economically to stop the drain. The IP they are most interested in is dual-use, both civilian and military: AI, bio-engineering, etc.
It's nice to see someone taking the long view. We Americans sell anything at a profit.
I'd have said Linus Torvalds.
And I would do the same today.
That's what happens when you have a system designed to ensure the rich stay rich, what's your point?
see subject, that is all, good night.
capcha: computes
Softbank core business is selling cellular service. As it is a subscription service, he has access to predictable cash flow. This is similar to Berkshire Hathaway's GEICO, which sells insurance. His investment style is much riskier than Warren Buffet, and very tech heavy.
bahahahaahahahahahahaaha
To find someone who doesn't already know this story, in many glorious hues, you'd pretty much have to travel to some remote place where television hasn't been invented yet (and maybe books, too).
Most people on the internet have television, and 99% of us can read with fair proficiency, yet somehow you feel the need to recap that story in its essential outlines here. Obviously, your narrative purpose is not to inform, but rather to scold or remind, or some interesting hybrid thereof; or perhaps to anchor one narrative frame in the discussion, at the expense of another.
There's an extensive and thriving literature on nature vs nurture, and the complex weave of heredity and environment—which your post reduces to a single, commonplace "just so" story.
Another possible name for "just so" stories is base-rate baldies: you can tell a "just so" story by the inability of a superforecaster to do anything with it at all. The universal hallmark of a superforecaster is to first establish the base rate, and then refine the model to increasingly narrow specifics progressing inward by degrees from that firm foundation.
Magic Eight Ball, Magic Eight Ball, tell me a story about a knockout success.
Magic Eight Ball, Magic Eight Ball, tell me a story about another knockout success.