Yesterday, I saw a video of a speech where Masayoshi Son and Huang Renxun were on stage together. Huang Renxun reviewed the remarkable achievements Masayoshi Son has created in the history of the internet:
- Masayoshi Son brought Bill Gates to Japan
- Masayoshi Son brought (Yahoo's founder) Jerry Yang to Japan
- Masayoshi Son contributed to Alibaba's success in China
- Masayoshi Son brought Steve Jobs to Japan
These four achievements span the four stages of contemporary information technology development: software, the internet, e-commerce, and mobile.
Huang Renxun summarized these achievements as:
Masayoshi Son is the only entrepreneur in the world who has found the winner in each stage of this era and collaborated with them.
Even more astonishing is: about 10 years ago, Masayoshi Son bought NVIDIA's stock in the secondary market and was once NVIDIA's largest shareholder.
At that time, Masayoshi Son privately told Huang Renxun:
The market does not understand NVIDIA's value, and NVIDIA's future is limitless. You should buy all of NVIDIA's stock, and I can lend you money to buy the stock.
Masayoshi Son also said:
NVIDIA will have to struggle for a while, because NVIDIA is creating the future.
Unfortunately, Masayoshi Son sold all his NVIDIA shares in 2019.
During the entire speech, there was one scene that was particularly poignant:
When Huang Renxun mentioned that Masayoshi Son used to be NVIDIA's largest shareholder, this genius with graying hair but still sharp spirit lowered his head and hugged Huang Renxun tightly, then laughter echoed through the audience.
Was the laughter tinged with embarrassment? Regret?
Regret for missing out on history? Or helplessness at the fleeting nature of opportunities?
Perhaps only Masayoshi Son himself can truly feel the real emotions.
However, the more complex the emotions, the more one can see the greatness of this cross-era investor.
A great investor is not one who never makes mistakes in investing, but one who can continuously create investment miracles, and any one of the investment miracles he creates would be enough to glorify a lifetime for his peers.
The reason Masayoshi Son can create these miracles, in addition to his extraordinary thinking, is something I consider very important:
That is, his investments are not just focused on money, but on the entrepreneurs behind the projects, imagining their future.
Masayoshi Son invests in cutting-edge technology industries. This is very different from traditional industry investments: investing in cutting-edge technology is investing in the future - future industries, future models.
These industries and models either do not exist in modern society or are still in the very early experimental stage, with the possibility of being falsified and reduced to zero at any time.
Therefore, investing in such projects involves taking great risks.
NVIDIA went public in 1999, but Masayoshi Son bought NVIDIA stock in the secondary market around 2014, more than 10 years after NVIDIA's IPO.
In fact, NVIDIA's explosive growth has only occurred in the last few years due to the explosion of artificial intelligence.
In 2014, NVIDIA's performance was far from as impressive as it is today.
I don't know why in that era Masayoshi Son said the market did not understand NVIDIA's value. Did he see NVIDIA's potential in the cloud computing field or did he really see NVIDIA's potential in the artificial intelligence field?
In any case, to be able to see through such projects requires imagination, creativity, and patience, as well as a touch of extra passion and innocence.
An investor who is only focused on money can only see the tangible benefits, only see the immediate money, and cannot see the intangible grand plan, cannot see through the present to the distant future, let alone see the light through the darkness.
The reason Huang Renxun was on stage with Masayoshi Son is that Huang Renxun attended NVIDIA's Japan summit and was invited by Masayoshi Son to jointly promote the development of artificial intelligence in Japan.
The prosperity of capitalism has not only created countless amazing technologies, but also countless great companies and countless great entrepreneurs.
In my view, this is the greatest practical achievement of the industrial revolution over the past few centuries.
Although our country does not yet have an entrepreneur like Masayoshi Son, in the decades since reform and opening up, our country has also produced a large number of outstanding entrepreneurs.
However, times have changed, and I hope the former prosperity can be recreated on this land.
