The Ledger ResearchPrivate

The Front Office

Scouting report · 9984.T

Masayoshi Son

  • Representative Director, Corporate Officer, Chairman & CEO, 9984.T since 1981-09src

Founded SoftBank in 1981; Chairman & CEO since 1986, 32.7% holder

—thin record

Not ranked yet

Scouting sheet

as of 24 Sep 2026
Delivers guidance—no promises on the record yet
Answers the question—no call reviewed yet
Capital allocation—company not reviewed yet
Pay design—0.00% of net income
Skin in the game—no holding or price on file
Age
68src
In the role
45 yr
Promises scored
0
Hit rate
—
Dodges / 100 answers
—
Airtime on calls
—
Every promise, oldest firstno scored promises yet

What to weigh

Watch 4

  • About 31% of his personal holding (154.2m pre-split shares) was pledged to lenders in December 2025, after he released 19.4m shares from pledgessrc
  • Related party: his MgmtCo holds 17.25% of Vision Fund 2 alongside SoftBank, with distributions restricted until the fund clears a performance thresholdsrc
  • At the June 2025 AGM the director-pay amendment passed with only 55.82% after ISS and Glass Lewis opposed it; his own re-election got 95.26%, up 16 points on 2024src
  • Key-person concentration: he also chairs Arm and Stargate, and SoftBank carries Stargate's financial responsibilitysrc

In their favour 1

  • Owns 32.7% of SoftBank Group per the yuho, the largest holder by far. His pay has been a flat ¥100m a year since the year ended 2021-03src

Career

  1. 2025-01 – now
    Stargate (SoftBank and OpenAI AI-infrastructure venture)src
    Chairman
  2. 2023-08 – now
    Arm Holdings plcsrc
    Chairman and Director
    Arm's 20-F dates his chairmanship of the Arm board from March 2018 (the pre-IPO Arm company) and of the old ARM Holdings plc from September 2016; he takes no pay from Arm (ARM20F-FY26)
  3. 2021-04 – now
    SoftBank Corp. (9434, the Japanese telecom operator)src
    Founder Director
  4. 2020-11 – now
    SoftBank Group Corp.src
    Representative Director, Corporate Officer, Chairman & CEO (会長兼社長執行役員)
  5. 2017-06 – 2020-11
    SoftBank Group Corp.src
    Representative Director, Chairman & President
  6. 2016-09 – 2018-03
    ARM Holdings plcsrc
    Chairman and Executive Director
    After SoftBank Group's 2016 takeover
  7. 2006-04 – 2021-04
    SoftBank Corp. (formerly Vodafone K.K.)src
    Chairman of the board, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO; Chairman only from 2015
    The 20-F gives Chairman and CEO 2006-2015 and Chairman since 2015; the yuho lists him as Founder Director from April 2021, so the end date of the chairmanship is inferred from that
  8. 2005-10 – 2020
    Alibaba Group Holding Limited (then Alibaba.com Corporation)src
    Director
    Start date from the yuho career. The yuho does not give an end date; the 2020 departure is model background knowledge (BG), not located
  9. 1981-09 – 2017-06
    SoftBank Group Corp. (founded as Nihon SoftBank)src
    Founder, Representative Director & President; Chairman and CEO from February 1986
    The February 1986 Chairman-and-CEO date is from ARM20F-FY26

Achievements

  • Founded the company in September 1981 as a PC software distributor and has run it for 45 years, Chairman and CEO since February 1986src
  • Chairs Arm, the listed chip-design subsidiary SoftBank took over in 2016 and still controls (86% per Arm's 20-F)src
  • Chairman of Stargate, the US AI-infrastructure venture announced with OpenAI in January 2025, in which SoftBank carries the financial responsibilitysrc
  • SoftBank Group reported IFRS net income of ¥5.0tn for the year ended 2026-03-31src

Education

  • University of California, Berkeley, BA Economics (1980)src

Background

  • Founder Founder and largest shareholder: the yuho officer table shows 1,865,511,000 shares, 32.674%, for the year ended 2026-03-31, up from 29.043% a year earliersrc
  • Boards Chairman of Arm Holdings plc and Founder Director of SoftBank Corp. (9434); a director of Alibaba from 2005src
  • Investing Invests alongside the company: MgmtCo, which he controls, holds 17.25% of SoftBank Vision Fund 2 under a co-investment program disclosed as a related-party transactionsrc
  • Family Brother of Taizo Son, founder of GungHo Online Entertainment and of the Mistletoe venture platformsrc
  • Other Arm's 20-F reports no family relationships among Arm's directors and senior management, a board he chairssrc

The promise ledger

No promise on the record yet: the research routine has not scored this company's guidance.

Sources

14
  1. Filing Arm Holdings plc Form 20-F, FY ended 2026-03-31 (0001973239-26-000097), Item 6.A (Son's bio, age 68 as of 2026-03-31, no family relationships), 6.B (no Arm pay), 6.E (disclaims SoftBank's Arm shares) · 2026-05-26
  2. Filing SoftBank Group Corp. Schedule 13D/A on Symbotic Inc. (0001493152-25-026738), Exhibit 1 Schedule A: executive officers and directors of SoftBank Group Corp. · 2025-12-08
  3. Web search result IRBANK officer page for 孫正義 (E02778): republishes the yuho officer table (career 略歴, title and shares held by year) from the 第46期 yuho, FY 2025-04-01 to 2026-03-31. Used because EDINET and EDINET DB get_directors are out of reach · 2026-09-24
  4. Web search result IRBANK pay page (E02778): republishes the yuho's individually disclosed pay (officers with ¥100m or more) and the per-category totals, FY ended March 2014 to March 2026 · 2026-09-24
  5. Web search result WebSearch: Tokyo Shoko Research via Yahoo! News, 'ソフトバンクG、孫会長兼社長の報酬総額は1億円': FY ended 2026-03 total ¥100m = base ¥12m + bonus ¥88m, ¥100m every year since FY ended 2021-03 · 2026-09-24
  6. Data connector EDINET DB get_director_compensation(edinet_code=E02778, fiscal_year=2025): FY ended 2025-03-31, inside directors (4): fixed ¥222m, performance-linked cash ¥504m, other ¥1m, total ¥727m; no share-based pay; 4 officers at ¥100m or more
  7. Data connector EDINET DB get_company(edinet_code=E02778): latest fiscal year (ended 2026-03-31) IFRS net income ¥5,002,271m
  8. Web search result WebSearch: Masayoshi Son biography (Wikipedia): Holy Names College 1975, transferred to UC Berkeley 1977, economics graduate 1980 · 2026-09-24
  9. Web search result WebSearch: SoftBank Group press release 'Announcing The Stargate Project' (2025-01-22): SoftBank has financial responsibility, OpenAI operational; Son is chairman · 2026-09-24
  10. Web search result WebSearch: SoftBank Group consolidated financial report, FY ended 2026-03 (related party transactions): MgmtCo, controlled by Son, holds 17.25% of SVF2 under the co-investment program; its distributions are restricted until SVF2 performance clears a threshold · 2026-09-24
  11. Web search result WebSearch: Bloomberg, 'Son cuts SoftBank shares pledged to lenders by $2.1 billion' (2025-12-12): 154.2m shares, about 31% of his personal holding, pledged to lenders after he released 19.4m · 2026-09-24
  12. Web search result WebSearch: Nikkei, 'ソフトバンクG株主総会、役員報酬変更は賛成55.8%' (2025-07): the director-pay amendment (¥5bn cap kept, board to set stock-option exercise conditions) passed with 55.82% after ISS and Glass Lewis recommended against; Son's re-election 95.26%, up 16 points on 2024 · 2026-09-24
  13. Web search result WebSearch: Taizo Son (Wikipedia): youngest brother of Masayoshi Son; founded GungHo Online Entertainment (2002) and Mistletoe (2013) · 2026-09-24
  14. From memory, not located in a source Model background knowledge, not located in a source