SoftBank's drastic plunge: Masayoshi Son's fortune takes $2.5 billion hit amid market turmoil

A two-day plunge in SoftBank Group Corp. shares erased $2.5 billion from the fortune of founder Masayoshi Son, as the tech investment giant took a hit from the fallout of the unexpected interest-rate hike of the Bank of Japan. SoftBank shares slid 6.7 per cent in morning trading in Tokyo, for a two-day decline of about 13 per cent. Despite that, Son's wealth is still up about $3 billion from $11.3 billion held at the start of the year, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Son is one of the hardest-hit tycoons as Japanese stocks suddenly go into reverse. Tokyo-based SoftBank, one of the world's biggest technology investors, had risen 46 per cent through July. The group's assets include a large stake in Arm Holdings Plc, a chipmaker whose shares soared this year on expectations it would cash in on the AI boom. However, Arm's shares fell 16 per cent on Thursday after it simply reiterated its current annual sales forecast, disappointing investors.

Japanese stocks dropped the most since 2020 on Friday as tighter policy action continued to take its toll on one of the world's best-performing markets. A strengthening yen, which climbed to a four-month high on Thursday following hawkish hints from the BOJ earlier in the week, may also weigh on SoftBank's international operations.

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Most of Son's stake is pledged as collateral against loans from various financial institutions, making him the largest shareholder in the $78 billion enterprise at SoftBank.

This steep drop in SoftBank's shares has rung the bell that there are risks attached to any tech investment, which may drastically move due to economic policies. The steep fall resulted in a huge loss of money for Masayoshi Son, reflecting that no investor, however experienced or old, can be immune to the tectonic changes happening across global markets. The coming weeks will be vital for determining whether SoftBank will recover from this steep fall and stabilise its market position or not.