David i dont consider myself a journalist. And nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i had a day job of running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . You are clearly one of the worlds most Successful Technology investors and businessmen. Let me ask you about a fund you are now raising, the vision fund. It is supposed to be a fund of 100 billion . Masayoshi yes. David that would be the biggest fund ever raised. When you told people you were going to raise a 100 billion fund, the people say you were crazy . Masayoshi some people said. [laughter] david you had a meeting with the deputy crown prince of saudi arabia, who is now the crown prince of saudi arabia. As i understand, you went in and in one hour convinced him to invest 45 billion. Masayoshi 45 minutes, 45 billion. [laughter] david sorry, i apologize. Masayoshi 1 billion per minute. [laughter] david what could you have said that was so persuasive to get 45 billion in one meeting . Masayoshi i said, you came to tokyo as the first man, i want to give you a gift. I want to give you a gift, a 1 trillion gift. He opened up his eyes and said ok. Now it is interesting. I woke him up and said, here is how i can give you a 1 trillion gift. You invest 100 billion to my fund. I give you 1 trillion. David what is it you told people and what was the vision you gave them . Masayoshi one reason, singularity. The singularity is the concept that computing power, computer Artificial Intelligence. The brains. David the singularity is the concept, that is the word means, that is the point at which a computer becomes smarter than a human brain. Masayoshi yes. Today, already, computers are smarter than mankind at chess or go or weather forecasts. In some expert systems, computers are already smarter. But in 30 years, most of the subject we are thinking, they will be smarter than us. That is my belief. David lets go back and talk about your upbringing a bit. You are of korean descent. Your father moved to japan, and your parents were born in japan. Did you suffer discrimination growing up in japan . Masayoshi yes, i had some experience. But i feel now, it is good. That made me stronger, to work harder. So i had to prove i am no different from any other guys, im not inferior, we are the same. I had to work harder to prove the value. David your family adopted a japanese name at one point. Masayoshi actually in japan, there was some period, the japanese government forced every korean to change to a japanese name. So it was not their intention that we had to. David you had to change. Masayoshi we had to change. That made me even more harder, because as a student, i was hiding something. It was even tougher. David you did not grow up in tokyo. You grew up in a relatively small town in japan. Is that right . Masayoshi in the southern part. David the southern part of japan. It was said you are interested in meeting the head of mcdonalds. Why were you interested in meeting the head of mcdonalds . Did you like the food . Masayoshi he wrote the book, and the book became the bestseller. I was so impressed and said, oh my god, this is great. The guy who wrote about it must be great. David how old were you when you wanted to meet him . Masayoshi 16. David 16. So you managed to get a meeting with him. Masayoshi i called his assistant, longdistance call. Back then it was so expensive. I made almost 100 calls 60 calls. I said this is my name, i am a student, could you ask him to spare me some time . Could you ask him . She said oh, i will try, but he is not going to meet with the student. I said well, do not decide by yourself. Let him decide. [laughter] masayoshi so i spoke with the assistant so many times. They did not give me the right answers so i said, this is a waste of my telephone bill. So i flew into tokyo and said, i came because the phone call was becoming more expensive than an air ticket. [laughter] david what happened . Masayoshi i said, tell him exactly the way i said it. You dont have to look at me, you dont have to talk to me, you can keep on working, whatever you are doing. I just want to see his face. [laughter] masayoshi for three minutes. So i am not bothering him. I am just so impressed and respect him, i want to see him. If you tell him i am not going to bother him, his time, his money, or damage his life, he said, ok. Actually, he spent 15 minutes with me, talking facetoface. David he gave you some advice, which was to learn masayoshi i asked him what business should i do. Computer. If i were you at this age, at this time, dont look at the past industries, look at the future industries. That is the one, the computer industry, that is the one you should focus on. If i were you, that is where i would focus on. David so he gave you that advice, you were number one in your class and went to university of california at berkeley. When you were there you were not so much a student, but doing business on the side. Masayoshi i was a good student. But i said, five minutes i would allow, other than study. I have to make money, i want to earn 10,000 per month. And i will allow myself five minutes a day. I asked my friends, is there a good job that i can earn 10,000 in five minutes a day. My friend said, youre crazy. There is nothing like that. Do want to sell drugs . [laughter] masayoshi i said ok, what is the best, most efficient use of my time . It is the invention. The invention, i have to file a patent. If i have to file a patent, five minutes, i can make an idea. I set an alarm clock for five minutes. Tick, tick, tick. In five minutes i said come, invention, come [laughter] masayoshi i did that. David and it worked . Masayoshi yes. David you invented a machine to help people translate languages . Masayoshi the First Electric dictionary. Many students use it. The first one ever made was by myself. David First Electric dictionary. And you sold it to sharp and made a lot of money. Masayoshi 1. 7 million. David what did you do with it . Masayoshi i used it to start softbank. David did you move back . Masayoshi i did another project and made 1. 5 million. I made 3. 2 million in 18 months, and that is better than 10,000 per month. I told that to my friends, look, 3. 2 million and i kept working only five minutes a day, as i promised you. David after you graduated, and made these successful inventions, you moved back to japan. Why did you move back to japan . Not that it is a great area, but you are in the Silicon Valley area. Why not stay there . Masayoshi i created a company and my employees asked me to stay. But i said no, i promised to my mother when i decided to come study in the states. She was crying in the airport and i said no, dont cry, mom. After i graduate from school, i will come back, i promise. She said no, you dont come back, this is forever. No, i promise you, dont worry, i promise you. I kept my word. David recently, you did the biggest investment you have ever made in a Company Called a. R. M. Masayoshi that is 99 market share for any smartphone you have in your pocket. I think the company will be more valuable than google. David you moved back to japan and started a Company Called softbank. What was softbanks purpose . What kind of business were you in . Masayoshi that was the time the personal computer got started. There was hardware, not enough software. So im going to get all kinds of software from the Small Software houses. I wholesale to the pc stores, so it is like a bank. Softwares bank, not the money bank. The software is storing in my warehouse. It is like a concept. David it is very successful, softbanks stock was going up. Then you decided at some point to start investing. One of the investments you made is considered by many people to be the most successful investment in the history of mankind. You invested roughly 20 million in alibaba. At the time it went public it was worth roughly 90 billion. So 20 million to 90 billion is a return of 4500 . Jack ma is a very distinguished individual, and now one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world. What made you feel it was worth 20 million . Masayoshi he had no Business Plan and zero revenue. Masayoshi employees, maybe 35, 40 employees. But his eyes were strong, shining. I could tell from the way he talked, the way he looked, he has a charisma, a leadership. But his Business Model was wrong. It was the way he talked, the way he can bring Young Chinese people to follow him. David before yahoo was so famous, you made an investment in it that was very successful. How did you hear about yahoo . Masayoshi it was private. They had about 15 employees. I convince them to take 100 Million Dollars investment. At the time, they grew from 15 to 35 people. We invested 100 million to own 35 . And then they had their ipo and made a great return. At the same time, i convinced them, the directors of the board of yahoo japan, to start another company. We put 1. 2 million, they put 0. 8 million. 2 million startup capital, we owned a 60 . David lets talk about one big mistake you made overall. You have been successful with almost everything you touch. You made a lot of internet investments around the turnofthecentury, 2000. The market went down in the tech crash and it is said you personally lost 70 billion of net worth. The greatest loss any human being has ever suffered financially. How did you feel, losing 70 billion of net worth . Masayoshi one year before that, actually, my personal net worth was increasing 10 billion per week. [laughter] masayoshi for three days i became richer than bill gates. David did that upset him . Masayoshi before i talked to anybody else, our stock started crashing. [laughter] masayoshi six months after that, our share price went down 99 . We almost went bankrupt. And somehow, i survived. David you rebuilt your business. Among the things you did, you bought wellknown companies. Vodafone, you bought vodafones mobile telephone business in japan. Masayoshi they said the internet would become mobile internet, so i had the either get the license from the government or the spectrum, or acquire Vodafone Japan. First, i applied for the license to the government. The government said no, there is no more spectrum. I actually sued the government. For one year, a big fight. But then Vodafone Japan became available. 20 billion. I have 2 billion and was 18 billion short. David where did you get the money . Masayoshi i convinced the bank that Vodafone Japan would turn around and become successful. Become a great cash flow. They believed me and lent the money. David they did. It turned out to be very successful. Recently you did the biggest investment you have ever made in a Company Called a. R. M. , a Semiconductor Manufacturer in london. Why did you spend 31 billion on a Semiconductor Manufacturer when many people think that is not the future . Masayoshi it was actually 34 billion. It is not the manufacturer, it is the design house. They design all the chips. They have 99 market share for any smartphone you have in your pocket. A. R. M. Has 99 market share. The next 20 years, they will ship one trillion chips, design for one trillion chips. This is that company nobody can live on the earth anymore without chips. The chip is everywhere in your car, refrigerator, everywhere. If the chip is something everybody needs, and one company has 90 market share, there must be a value. They are not monetizing well enough. But if i own it, we can monetize much better. That is my belief. So i think the company is going to be more valuable than google. It is a private company now. David so you dont worry robots could become so smart they would wipe out humanity as some people worry . Masayoshi there is danger. But when the robots super intelligence goes beyond mankinds intelligence, fighting is not an efficient way of living. Harmony is better. David in the future, you are a big believer in robots. It is your view Artificial Intelligence is a good thing and ultimately will not hurt humanity, is that correct . Masayoshi right. David so you do not worry robots could become so smart they could wipe out humanity, as some people worry . Masayoshi there is a danger of that. But if you look at the longterm history, people were killing each other with many battles among different tribes and so on. But todays world, we do not have those things in everyday life. We are more civilized. When the robots superintelligence goes beyond mankinds intelligence, it will say fighting is not an efficient way of living. Harmony is better. It is more social. We are going to live in harmony. They think about us, help us, and they try to amuse us and and have good love for each other. David what gives you the greatest pleasure in the world . Masayoshi i have a vision of singularity. That is really coming. So we created vision fund. We go and change the world together and create a better world, a better world for human living. So that excites me. Thinking about what is the future . How we can change the life of people for the better of humanity. So that people do not need to die for unnecessary reasons, like having accidents or having a disease or having a disaster. To protect humans from all that sadness is a good thing. Imagining those things and investing in creating and having great products, great solutions, is exciting. David and today, you come back and have enormous net worth by any human standard, one of the richest men in the world. What do you do with all this money . Masayoshi i have not decided what to do. David you have not decided . But you are 60 years old, you have to decide at some point. Masayoshi deciding how to spend with respect is more difficult than making money. That was a headache i had. David you were the richest man, you have that headache, lost that headache and now you have it again. [laughter] david any plans of doing this for the next 20 years . Masayoshi at the age of 19 i created my 50 year life plan. By the 60s, so between 60 and 69 i would decide my successor and have my successor keep on running it. In my next 10 years i have to do that. But even after i find a successor and give him a baton, to run as the captain, i would probably stay working with him, coaching him. As long as i live, i cannot forget about this excitement. David your parents are still alive, they must be extremely proud of you. Masayoshi they actually are very proud of me, and very happy. We are a happy family. We dont live together, but they call me occasionally. My dad is a funny guy. He has unique ideas, crazy ideas. He always calls me and says, masa, i have an idea. You have to do this. He knows everything i am doing. He is very creative, very smart. He will talk about business with me all the time. David you are japanese, but you are of korean descent. But youre different from Japanese Business people that are very consensusoriented, not as entrepreneurial as you are. Has that been a challenge for you in building your business in japan . Masayoshi lots of challenge, but the uniqueness is actually good. We talk of other people this way. I am unique, i have more opportunities. The difficulty if you flip it over, it becomes an advantage. David if you could live with your life over, is there anything you would do differently than you have done . Masayoshi i may. But this is the life i am enjoying so much, that i would love to do it again. I was so lucky, so close to falling down from the cliff. I do not know how i could do it twice. [laughter] masayoshi but this is definitely an exciting life. I am having fun. Emily i am emily chang. This is the best of Bloomberg Technology. We bring you all of our top interviews from the week in tech. Why amazon is teaming up to improve its voice activated virtual assistant. Voice activated virtual assistant. We will speak with the Vice President of alexa. A wideranging interview with the former ceo of microsoft, steve ballmer. And we will hear from the ceo of starbucks to hear how the company adapts in the age of technology. This week we took Bloomberg Technology to seattle for the geek