A biography for Masayoshi Sonhasn’t been written yet.
“Uber is redefining the transportation industry now; Airbnb is doing it to the hotel industry. You can expect that to happen in every single industry.”
“It's a long journey. There will be good times, and there will be bad times, but SoftBank is always there.”
“As a student, I had a hobby of inventing new ideas for products. For me, thinking of new businesses is like inventing new products.”
“Softbank has always been a service firm, and with the Internet, services became the center of the technology industry.”
“People usually compare the computer to the head of the human being. I would say that hardware is the bone of the head, the skull. The semiconductor is the brain within the head. The software is the wisdom. And data is the knowledge.”
“A person's life is over in 50, 100 years. But a company lives on through the people it is composed of, and SoftBank group has to survive even after I'm gone.”
“I always have a big idea. It pops up every two to three years.”
“We saw a big bang in PCs; we saw a big bang in the Internet. I believe the next big bang is going to be even bigger. To be ready for that, we need to set the foundation, and that foundation is SoftBank Vision Fund.”
“To many of you, Sprint may seem like a burden for SoftBank. But in my view, Sprint is going to be one of SoftBank's primary cash cows.”
“God is so kind, he has given so much sunshine to India.”
“The energy in Silicon Valley is because of the very talented engineers immigrating from around the world, especially Indians and Chinese. They are the best engineers, and Japan doesn't have enough of them.”
“Mankind had the agricultural revolution, the industrial revolution, and now this third one, the information revolution.”
“Just believe in the future and direction of the capability that ARM has. Go deep and build a better future, both for the company and for its contribution to the industry. That's what I want ARM to do: invest more the future.”
“There will come a time when the human race and super intelligence will coexist to create a richer and happier life.”
“Those who rule data will rule the entire world.”
“Back in the year 2000, most of the Internet companies were not making any money.”
“We believe the singularity is inevitable, and all businesses will be redefined as computers overtake humans in intelligence.”
“Uber has to design for the global platform.”
“If I go to the department store, I get no excitement: I can buy the entire department store instead of one bag. So I lost excitement of shopping.”
“InMobi is not just an India-focused company, but it is a global player.”