1
THE OUTSIDER
INT. TOSU CITY, SAGA PREFECTURE, JAPAN — DAY — 1967
A cramped house near railroad tracks. This is an area where ethnic Koreans live in Japan — marginalized, discriminated against. Young MASAYOSHI SON, 10, sits in the back of a classroom. The other children call him by a different name — his Korean name, which marks him as an outsider.
MASAYOSHI SON
((V.O.))
In Japan, being Korean meant you were less. Less respected. Less valued. Less human. My grandmother collected scraps to feed pigs. My father sold illegal sake from a shack by the railroad. I was born into nothing. But nothing is just another word for possibility.
Young Masa reads a biography of Sakamoto Ryoma — the samurai who helped modernize Japan. He reads it three times.
MASAYOSHI SON
((to himself))
If a samurai from a low-ranking family could change Japan, why can't I?
INT. HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE, JAPAN — DAY — 1973
MASAYOSHI, 16, sits across from his principal. He has announced he is leaving school to study in America. His parents are terrified. His teachers are baffled.
MASAYOSHI SON
I will go to America. I will study. I will start a company. I will make it the biggest company in the world. This is my fifty-year plan.
He pulls out a notebook. Inside, handwritten in neat rows, is a life plan — decade by decade, from age 20 to age 70. At age 60, it reads: "Pass the business to a successor." At age 70: "Retire. Reflect."
This was not a joke. Masayoshi Son created a fifty-year life plan at age sixteen and followed it with terrifying precision for the next five decades.
INT. UC BERKELEY — DAY — 1977
MASAYOSHI, 19, studies economics and computer science at Berkeley. Between classes, he invents. He patents a translating device — an electronic dictionary that converts between Japanese and English. He sells the patent to Sharp for $1 million.
MASAYOSHI SON
One million dollars. My first million. I made it by solving a problem — the gap between languages. Every great business solves a gap.
INT. SOFTBANK OFFICE, TOKYO — DAY — 1981
SOFTBANK IS FOUNDED
A tiny office. MASAYOSHI, 24, stands on a crate and addresses his two employees.
MASAYOSHI SON
In thirty years, SoftBank will have revenue of $73 billion and 5,000 employees. We will be one of the top ten companies in the world.
His two employees stare at him. Then they both quit. They think he is insane. He hires two more.
2
THE BIGGEST BET
INT. YAHOO HEADQUARTERS, SUNNYVALE — DAY — 1995
MASAYOSHI meets JERRY YANG, co-founder of Yahoo. Yahoo is a startup — a directory of websites. The internet is new. Most people don't understand it. Masa understands it completely.
MASAYOSHI SON
Jerry, I want to invest $100 million in Yahoo.
JERRY YANG
$100 million? We're a website directory. We have twelve employees.
MASAYOSHI SON
You're not a website directory. You're the front door of the internet. And I want to own part of the door.
They settle on $100 million for a 33% stake. It is one of the most audacious bets in investment history.
That $100 million investment would grow to be worth over $8 billion. But it was just the warm-up act.
INT. BEIJING HOTEL CONFERENCE ROOM — DAY — 1999
MASAYOSHI meets JACK MA, a former English teacher from Hangzhou who has an idea for an e-commerce platform called Alibaba. Jack Ma has been rejected by dozens of investors. The meeting lasts six minutes.
JACK MA
I want to connect small Chinese businesses to the world. An online marketplace where anyone can buy and sell anything.
MASAYOSHI SON
How much do you need?
JACK MA
I was thinking maybe two million —
MASAYOSHI SON
I'll give you twenty million.
JACK MA
That's too much. I don't need —
MASAYOSHI SON
You don't know what you need yet. You will. Take the twenty million.
Jack Ma takes the twenty million. That $20 million investment will eventually be worth over $130 billion — the single greatest venture capital return in history.
INT. SOFTBANK HEADQUARTERS — DAY — 2000
THE DOT-COM CRASH — MASA LOSES $70 BILLION IN PERSONAL WEALTH
The dot-com bubble bursts. SoftBank's stock falls 99%. Masayoshi Son, briefly the richest man in the world, loses $70 billion in paper wealth — the largest personal financial loss in history.
MASAYOSHI SON
((to his board))
I am not discouraged. I am not retreating. The internet is not a bubble — the prices were a bubble. The internet itself is the most important invention since electricity. We will hold our positions and wait.
He holds. He waits. The Alibaba investment alone will make him a billionaire many times over.
3
THE VISION FUND
INT. RIYADH PALACE — DAY — 2016
MASAYOSHI meets the SAUDI PRINCE in a gilded room. Masa has a PowerPoint — 45 minutes of his vision for artificial intelligence, robotics, and the singularity. He finishes the pitch in 45 minutes.
MASAYOSHI SON
I want to create the largest investment fund in history. One hundred billion dollars. We will invest in every transformative technology company on Earth. AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, biotech — everything.
SAUDI PRINCE
One hundred billion?
MASAYOSHI SON
It is not enough. But it is a start. Saudi Arabia provides $45 billion. SoftBank provides $25 billion. We find the rest.
SAUDI PRINCE
You are asking me to commit $45 billion in forty-five minutes?
MASAYOSHI SON
Great decisions should not take long. They should feel inevitable.
The prince agrees. The SoftBank Vision Fund is born — $100 billion, the largest technology investment fund ever created.
INT. WEWORK HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK — DAY — 2017
MASAYOSHI tours WeWork with ADAM NEUMANN. The office is a playground — beer taps, yoga rooms, motivational quotes on every wall. Adam's charisma is magnetic.
ADAM NEUMANN
WeWork isn't a real estate company. It's a consciousness company. We're elevating the world's consciousness through shared workspaces.
MASAYOSHI SON
I like crazy. Crazy is where the future lives. I'm investing $4.4 billion.
He scribbles a valuation on a napkin: $47 billion. He shows it to Adam.
MASAYOSHI SON
In fact — you're not being crazy enough. Be crazier.
"Be crazier." Those two words would cost SoftBank over $10 billion when WeWork's IPO collapsed in 2019, exposing a company burning cash with no path to profitability. It was the worst investment of Masayoshi Son's career — and possibly the worst venture capital investment ever made.
INT. SOFTBANK EARNINGS CALL — DAY — 2019
MASAYOSHI stands before investors after WeWork's collapse. His slides show a red ink tsunami — $8.9 billion in losses for the Vision Fund.
MASAYOSHI SON
((bowing deeply))
I created a monster. My investment judgment was poor. I am deeply sorry. I was foolish.
He pauses. Then straightens.
MASAYOSHI SON
But I will not stop investing. The Vision Fund thesis is correct even if individual investments are wrong. I have been wrong before. I lost $70 billion in the dot-com crash. I came back. I will come back again.
4
THE ARM BET
INT. SOFTBANK BOARDROOM — DAY — 2020
MASAYOSHI studies ARM Holdings — the chip design company SoftBank acquired for $32 billion in 2016. Every smartphone on Earth runs on ARM architecture. Every AI chip needs ARM.
MASAYOSHI SON
ARM is the most important company nobody talks about. Every phone, every tablet, every smart device, every AI server — ARM is inside. I bought it because I saw the future. The future is AI. And AI needs ARM.
INT. NASDAQ — DAY — SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
ARM IPO — VALUED AT $54 BILLION
MASAYOSHI rings the bell at NASDAQ. ARM has gone public — the largest tech IPO of 2023. SoftBank's remaining stake is worth over $45 billion. The AI boom has made ARM the most important chip architecture company on Earth.
MASAYOSHI SON
((on stage))
I have made many mistakes. WeWork was a mistake. But ARM was not a mistake. ARM is my masterpiece. I bought the future of computing for $32 billion. The future of AI runs on ARM.
INT. SOFTBANK OFFICES, TOKYO — NIGHT — PRESENT
MASAYOSHI, now in his mid-60s, sits alone in his office. On his desk is the same notebook he wrote at age 16 — the fifty-year plan. He is almost at the end. The plan said: age 60, pass the business to a successor. He hasn't done it yet. He can't.
MASAYOSHI SON
The plan said retire at 60. But the plan didn't account for AI. AI changes everything. It's the singularity I've been waiting for my entire life. I cannot retire now. Not when the biggest transformation in human history is just beginning.
He opens his notebook. Crosses out "Retire at 70." Writes: "Never retire. The vision is not complete."
The lights of Tokyo glitter below. Somewhere, an ARM chip powers a server running an AI model. Somewhere, an Alibaba merchant ships a product to a customer. Somewhere, a startup founder receives a call from SoftBank. The biggest swings in investing history continue. Masayoshi Son is still swinging.
Masayoshi Son has invested over $300 billion across 500+ companies. His $20 million Alibaba investment became worth $130 billion — the greatest VC return in history. He lost $70 billion in the dot-com crash and billions more on WeWork. His net worth has fluctuated between $2 billion and $70 billion. He has been the richest man in the world and nearly bankrupt — sometimes in the same decade. The Korean-Japanese outsider from a shack by the railroad became the most audacious investor who ever lived. He is still investing. He is still swinging. He always will be.
FADE OUT.