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SoftBank Group

also referred to as: softbank · softbank vision fund · the vision fund · vision fund

21 statements across 15 episodes · 2 bullish · 11 bearish · 8 people on the record · first statement Jul 30, 2021 by Jason Calacanis · said 130 times in 43 episodes since 2020 · across every show →

Mentions by year

brought up most by Jason Calacanis (47), David Friedberg (36), Chamath Palihapitiya (22), David Sacks (12), Brad Gerstner (5), Thomas Laffont (2), Nikesh Arora (2), Vinod Khosla (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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08152020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
002.57.55152020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 2 mentions in 2 episodes 1 per episode
2025 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2024 14 mentions in 4 episodes 4 per episode
2023 34 mentions in 10 episodes 3 per episode
2022 46 mentions in 11 episodes 4 per episode
2021 23 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2020 1 mention in 1 episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about SoftBank Group, oldest first

Jul 30, 2021 bearish
Assertion Supported
Calacanis: SoftBank selling Uber stake to cover Didi losses
“SoftBank is clearing a bunch of its Uber position to cover their losses in DD.”
Jason Calacanis Jul 30, 2021 ▶ 18:12 E42: China's tech crackdown, CRISPR breakthrough, practical climate change solutions & more
Aug 6, 2021 negative
Opinion
Sacks criticizes SoftBank for $500M seed checks into overvalued companies
“SoftBank is engaged in a style of investing that we would never engage in. It's absolutely Pathetical to the way that we invest, right? They're making five hundred million dollar seed investments in massively overvalued companies.”
David Sacks Aug 6, 2021 ▶ 38:21 E43: Innovative venture strategies, Zymergen's implosion, Square acquires Afterpay & more
Sep 14, 2021 neutral
Opinion
Friedberg: Climate infrastructure requires government funding, not venture capital
“And those infrastructure solutions, aren't going to get funded by SoftBank. And they're not going to get funded by Chamath. They're going to need to get funded by government type of dollars.”
David Friedberg Sep 14, 2021 ▶ 35:07 E46: False Ivermectin narratives, regulatory grift, wartime mentality in solving issues & more
Sep 18, 2021 negative
Assertion Supported
Friedberg: Zymergen raised $400M from SoftBank before disclosing zero revenue post-IPO
“Raised a four hundred million dollar round from SoftBank, took the company public. Then they go public, and a few weeks later, they're like, oh, wait, sorry, we don't actually have any product or any revenue.”
David Friedberg Sep 18, 2021 ▶ 1:10:24 E47: Facebook's week from hell, Ellen Pao on sexism in Elizabeth Holmes coverage, Newsom wins & more
Dec 11, 2021 neutral
Assertion Supported
SoftBank planned to invest $1.5 billion in Better.com's SPAC PIPE.
“They were in a SPAC. SoftBank was gonna put in 1.5 billion in the pipe.”
Jason Calacanis Dec 11, 2021 ▶ 50:47 E58: November's CPI, preparing for a downturn, macro outlook, Better.com's botched layoffs & more
Dec 11, 2021 negative
Opinion
David Friedberg argues SoftBank incentivizes unnatural startup growth leading to subsequent shocks.
“SoftBank, as you guys, as we all know, creates a very strong incentive and capitalizes businesses to go after kind of ultra perhaps unnatural growth. And there's almost always shocks that occur after they do that.”
David Friedberg Dec 11, 2021 ▶ 53:43 E58: November's CPI, preparing for a downturn, macro outlook, Better.com's botched layoffs & more
Dec 23, 2021 bullish
Opinion
Sacks: Tiger Global was the biggest VC winner by productizing late-stage funding
“In our world, the biggest winner was Tiger Global. They basically productize growth stage capital by far the biggest deployer of late stage funding. They productized it. So pretty much founders can just send their metrics on like a single sheet of paper and th…”
David Sacks Dec 23, 2021 ▶ 24:37 E60: The 2021 Bestie Awards PLUS Jack Dorsey starts the Web3 Wars
May 26, 2022 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rabois: Capital as the main tech driver has failed for 50 years
“Powering money into companies and hoping that money is the key asset and the key ingredient for success has been false in, in the history of technology for 50 years.”
Keith Rabois May 26, 2022 ▶ 58:32 #AIS: Tim Urban on political discourse + Keith Rabois on early-stage investing in 2022
Jul 29, 2022 negative
Assertion Supported
Friedberg: Zymergen sold for $300M after raising $1.5B
“Zymergen being acquired for three hundred million dollars comes off of them having raised a total of one and a half billion dollars of capital from many investors, including SoftBank and in their IPO, since they were founded in 2013.”
David Friedberg Jul 29, 2022 ▶ 1:10:45 E89: GDP growth negative in Q2, $SHOP layoffs, Alzheimer's fraud, Ginkgo acquires Zymergen & more
Aug 13, 2022 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Chamath: Blackstone and Silver Lake raised 15- and 20-year funds
“Blackstone, Silverlake, when they came on the heels of SoftBank, what they did was they raised funds with a 15 and 20 year life.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Aug 13, 2022 ▶ 20:30 E91: SoftBank's $21B+ Vision Fund loss, signals of a bubble, macro picture, Trump raided by FBI
Aug 13, 2022
Assertion Supported
Chamath: Over half of Vision Fund's Middle East capital is preferred equity
“More than half their investment is in preferred equity, which is effectively debt that pays a coupon.”
Chamath Palihapitiya Aug 13, 2022 ▶ 8:13 E91: SoftBank's $21B+ Vision Fund loss, signals of a bubble, macro picture, Trump raided by FBI
Aug 13, 2022 negative
Insight
David Friedberg: Startups where capital becomes the primary asset will fail
“And the problem in that model is that by giving you so much money, capital becomes your primary asset as a business. And capital needs to be the fuel that enables your assets as a business to accelerate. But as soon as capital itself becomes your primary asset…”
David Friedberg Aug 13, 2022 ▶ 13:20 E91: SoftBank's $21B+ Vision Fund loss, signals of a bubble, macro picture, Trump raided by FBI
Aug 13, 2022 negative
Assertion Partly supported
Masayoshi Son: SoftBank lost six trillion yen over two consecutive quarters
“So previous quarter, and this time quarter, consecutively, we made three trillion yen level of the loss. So in total, six trillion yen was made in the past six months.”
Masayoshi Son Aug 13, 2022 ▶ 5:22 E91: SoftBank's $21B+ Vision Fund loss, signals of a bubble, macro picture, Trump raided by FBI
Jun 16, 2023 negative
Assertion Supported
David Friedberg notes the SoftBank Vision Fund took a $32B write-down
“And in the fiscal year ending March, the Vision Fund alone took a thirty two billion dollar write down”
David Friedberg Jun 16, 2023 ▶ 12:35 E133: Market melt-up, IPO update, AI startups overheat, Reddit revolts & more with Brad Gerstner
Nov 3, 2023
Assertion Supported
Friedberg: SoftBank invested $16.9 billion total into WeWork in equity and debt
“SoftBank put in a total of 16.9 billion dollars in equity and debt.”
David Friedberg Nov 3, 2023 ▶ 45:45 E152: Real estate chaos, WeWork bankruptcy, Biden regulates AI, Ukraine's “Cronkite Moment” & more
Feb 17, 2024 negative
Opinion
Sacks: SoftBank Vision Fund writing $500M seed checks was bad strategy
“I don't think it was a great strategy to be pumping five hundred million dollar checks into what were effectively seed companies, like they were doing with the Vision Fund.”
David Sacks Feb 17, 2024 ▶ 8:50 E166: Mind-blowing AI Video: OpenAI launches Sora + Is Biden too old? Tucker/Putin interview & more
Sep 23, 2024 positive
Insight
Masa Son: Investors should scale fast-growing winners rather than fix mistakes
“Nikesh, you're spending too much time with the mistake. He said, if you go spend that time with a company that's growing it three times, they can grow it six times. We'll make our money up six times in that company instead of you trying to fix that from half b…”
Nikesh Arora Sep 23, 2024 ▶ 10:57 Nikesh Arora | All-In Summit 2024
Sep 23, 2024 neutral
Opinion
Arora: Masayoshi Son's risk appetite grew larger as he aged
“Masa is one of those people whose risk appetite grew as he grew older.”
Nikesh Arora Sep 23, 2024 ▶ 7:02 Nikesh Arora | All-In Summit 2024
Jan 31, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Travis Kalanick reveals he rejected Masa Son's money for funding competitors
“I did not take money from Masa. So he begged me to take money for years, and we did not take it because he is a, he's a, what's the word I'm looking for? He's a promiscuous investor. So once he invests in you should probably count on him and using your informa…”
Travis Kalanick Jan 31, 2025 ▶ 1:02:36 DeepSeek Panic, US vs China, OpenAI $40B?, and Doge Delivers with Travis Kalanick and David Sacks
Jan 31, 2025
Assertion Supported
Travis Kalanick says Saudi Arabia invested $3.5B before the Vision Fund existed
“We did stuff with the Saudis, Before even Vision Fund existed, they stroked a three and a half billion dollar check when that was like the biggest thing that ever happened.”
Travis Kalanick Jan 31, 2025 ▶ 1:03:55 DeepSeek Panic, US vs China, OpenAI $40B?, and Doge Delivers with Travis Kalanick and David Sacks
May 24, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Chamath: OpenAI funding rounds prior to $300B round included put options
“All of the rounds before the three hundred billion dollar round from SoftBank had essentially a feature where there was like a hard rate of return and the ability to put the stock back if they weren't able to do the conversion To a for-profit company, et ceter…”
Chamath Palihapitiya May 24, 2025 ▶ 54:43 Bond crisis looming? GOP abandons DOGE, Google disrupts Search with AI, OpenAI buys Jony Ive's IO
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