Which Japanese company is the parent of the SoftBank Vision Fund and owns Arm?

SoftBank Group is the Japanese parent of the SoftBank Vision Fund and the owner of Arm.

Masayoshi Son founded SoftBank in 1981 as a software distributor in Japan. The group later expanded into telecommunications, internet businesses, investment funds, and technology holdings. Its Vision Fund, announced in 2016, became one of the largest technology-focused investment funds ever assembled.

SoftBank acquired the British chip-design company Arm in 2016. Arm’s instruction-set architecture is used in processors found in smartphones, tablets, embedded devices, and increasingly in servers and other computing products. Arm was listed publicly again in 2023, while SoftBank remained its controlling shareholder.

SoftBank Group is distinct from SoftBank Corp., the Japanese telecommunications company. The two are related, but they are separate publicly traded entities. That distinction is important when comparing their market capitalizations and business activities.