SoftBank Group Corp. (OTC:SFTBY) CEO Masayoshi Son saw a $4.9 billion drop in his net worth on Tuesday, pushing the Japanese billionaire down to the 32nd position on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires list of the world’s richest people.
Son’s Rank Falls To Eighth Richest In Asia
Son’s net worth has fallen to $49.3 billion, marking a substantial decline from his previous standing as Asia’s third-richest person at the start of the month, according to Forbes’ list. This drop has placed him at the eighth position on the list, just below Uniqlo CEO Tadashi Yanai.
The decline in Son’s net worth is attributed to SoftBank’s stock, which hit its lowest level since mid-September. The company’s shares plummeted by almost 11% on Tuesday on the Tokyo stock exchange, resulting in a loss of nearly $5 billion from Son’s fortune. This stock drop follows a 10.9% decrease on Friday.
Over the past month, the stock has plunged 36.16%.
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SoftBank Hit by Growing AI Competition
These moves unfold as concerns mount over rising competition for OpenAI, a key investment of SoftBank's Vision Fund, with excitement around Google's (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) new Gemini 3 AI model adding to those worries.
On November 18, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced Gemini 3, describing it as the company's most advanced and context-aware AI yet, offering major improvements in multimodal and agentic capabilities as Google steps up its rivalry with OpenAI. The company said the model is its most intelligent and can help bring ideas to life.
The recent stock slump at SoftBank also reflects the current sentiment surrounding artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential impact on major players in the industry. Earlier this month, the company offloaded its stakes in T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ:TMUS) and Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to fund large-scale investments, including its significant commitment to OpenAI.
Meanwhile, earlier in the month, a Yale Law School researcher voiced concerns over potential antitrust issues surrounding the Stargate Project, a joint AI infrastructure initiative of OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle Corp (NYSE:ORCL). This initiative, backed by the Trump administration, has raised questions about the potential consolidation of power among major AI players.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
