Son himself credited his decisions to gut instinct, citing the sparkle in a founder’s eyes or inspiration akin to the Force in Star Wars. His tendency to bid up valuations and give founders more money than they asked for earned him recriminations from Silicon Valley rivals. Son set up SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2017 to be the world’s biggest technology investor and proceeded to pour more than $140 billion into hundreds of startups.

“SoftBank will continue to act in the best long-term interests of our investors.” “We believe that today’s restructuring support agreement represents the appropriate action for WeWork to reorganize its business and emerge from Chapter 11 proceedings,” a spokesperson for the Japanese investor said by email.