GAMBLING MAN

Gambling Man is the biography of one of the world s least known but most consequential investors Japan s Masayoshi Son has made and lost several fortunes investing or controlling assets worth 1 trillion in the past two decades through his media tech giant SoftBank He bankrolled Alibaba China s internet colossus before the world had heard about it plotted with Steve Jobs to turn the iPhone into a wonder product and financed hundreds of tech start ups fuelling the biggest boom Silicon Valley has ever seen This book takes you on Son s wild ride from his birthplace in a Korean slum in post war Japan to the modern day temples of power It speeds through Donald Trump s golden skyscraper in Manhattan the royal palaces of Riyadh and the throne rooms of China s Marxist rulers all places where Son has deployed his unique blend of financial engineering and crazy risk taking Son s story captures a 25 year span of hyper globalisation in which money technologies and ideas flowed freely From the launch of the microchip to the advent of artificial intelligence he has ridden the technological wave which has created extraordinary wealth and economic change His topsy turvy business career is testimony to the power of optimism daring to dream ever in search of the Nex