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SoftBank Group’s shares fell nearly 19% on Monday, following a broader global market sell-off, resulting in a significant loss for founder Masayoshi Son. The steep decline in SoftBank’s stock has wiped approximately $4.6 billion from Son’s net worth, according to Forbes’ real-time billionaires list.
The drop in SoftBank’s stock is part of a larger trend affecting Japanese equities, triggered by the Bank of Japan’s decision to raise its benchmark interest rate. The Nikkei 225 index suffered its worst day since the infamous “Black Monday” of 1987, posting a 12.4% loss.
Prior to these recent declines, SoftBank had experienced a strong performance this year, with its stock reaching new highs. The recovery was driven in part by the performance of the Vision Fund and a significant increase in the share price of Arm, the British chip designer largely owned by SoftBank.
Despite the recent drop, SoftBank’s shares are still up 1.7% for the year. However, the company has seen around $28.3 billion in value evaporate since the market close on Wednesday.
SoftBank is scheduled to report its fiscal first-quarter earnings on Wednesday, and investors are anticipating further recovery in the Vision Fund’s performance. Son, who had been relatively low-profile recently, made a notable return in June to discuss his ambitious vision for artificial intelligence, predicting it will eventually surpass human intelligence by a factor of 10,000.