OpenAI Starts to Look Like Masa’s Savior

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group. Image via Getty.

SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 has performed so terribly it seems like fiction. Yet SoftBank Group’s stock hit an all-time high on Tuesday.

To followers of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, none of this is surprising. Once again, he’s pulling a rabbit out of a hat, finding a blockbuster investment that overpowers his string of losers.

The investment is OpenAI, and its success is one reason SoftBank’s stock is soaring. The maker of ChatGPT is in talks with investors, including Thrive Capital, to lead an employee share sale at a $500 billion valuation—double the company’s most recent valuation.