SoftBank May Slash 20% of Vision Fund Staff as Masayoshi Son Focuses on AI

SoftBank Group is likely to lay off approximately 20% of its Vision Fund team across the world as founder Masayoshi Son bets big on artificial intelligence, according to Bloomberg reports. Notably, this will be the third round of layoffs at the Japanese investment conglomerate’s fund since 2022.

Currently, the Vision Fund has more than 280 employees globally. The report stated that nearly 50 employees will be asked to leave the company as a part of the job cut. This came amid the fund’s strong quarterly results since June 2021, driven by gains in public holdings such as Nvidia and South Korean e-commerce firm Coupang.  

It has bounced back the losses in the first quarter of financial year 2025-26. The fund has made unrealised valuation gains totaling $308 million due to the rising share prices of Swiggy on Indian bourses.

It has also booked a net profit of $2.87 billion in the first quarter. The valuation of publicly listed holdings under SoftBank Vision Fund 2 surged 22% quarter-on-quarter during the period. The fund clocked $48.8 billion in cumulative returns on $70.9 billion investments during the quarter under review, with a $22.1 billion gross loss.

“We continually adjust the organisation to best execute our long-term strategy – making bold, high conviction investments in AI and breakthrough technologies,” the statement read, as quoted by Bloomberg.

SoftBank's Bet on AI

The investor's latest restructuring signals a return to Masayoshi Son's trademark playbook of bold, concentrated bets, mobing on from the broad venture capital style that once drove the Vision Fund. The previous strategy left the group vulnerable, forcing it to sell assets and rebuild reust after heavy losses.

This renewed focus on capital-intensive AI infrastructure underlines where Son believes the next wave of growth lies. He has been funnelling billions into foundation models and infrastructure plays, even when valuations are steep.

Over the past year alone, nearly $9.7 billion has been deployed into OpenAI through Vision Fund 2, which oversees about $65.8 billion in assets. SoftBank is also doubling down on its prized asset, Arm, with a strategy anchored in chips and data infrastructure.

Recent deals include acquiring Graphcore and Ampere Computing, along with taking stakes in Intel and Nvidia. By the end of its March quarter, SoftBank’s ownership of Nvidia Corp had risen to approximately $3 billion, triple the prior quarter, while fresh purchases of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) shares added roughly $330 million to its portfolio.

SoftBank’s planned $6.5 billion acquisition of Ampere Computing LLC and a further $30 billion commitment to OpenAI underline the group’s strategy to dominate both compute infrastructure and AI software.

Together, these moves point to a bid to create a full-stack ecosystem spanning semiconductors, data centers, and AI models to power the next generation of adoption.