Chairman, it is now the scheduled time. Will you please take the podium? Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Masayoshi Son, Chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group Corporation. I'd like to thank you all for joining this meeting today despite your busy schedule. I'd also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude for your constant support to the company. With your permission, I will chair this meeting pursuant to the provision of Article 13 of the Articles of Incorporation. I will call the 39th annual general meeting of shareholders, SoftBank Group Corporation, to order. Please accept our apology from Director Yun Ma and Director Yasir Al-Rumayyan, who are not able to attend today for an unavoidable reason. Today's meeting is broadcasted live over the Internet. I appreciate your understanding.
The agenda today is just as set out on page three of the convocation notice of this annual general meeting of shareholders. Before we proceed, I'd like you to note that questions or comments will be taken after reports on matters for reporting and explanation on matters for approval. I'd like to report the number of shareholders present at this meeting and the number of their voting rights. The number of shareholders having voting rights at this meeting is 159,475, and the number of voting rights that may be cast at this meeting is 10,531,442. The number of shareholders present who will exercise voting right at this meeting is 39,998, and the number of their voting right is 6,117,953. A quorum, therefore, exists to proceed.
I'll report on the first matter for reporting business report, consolidated financial statement for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2019, and the result of audits by the independent auditor and Audit and Supervisory Board of Consolidated Financial Statements, and the second matter for reporting financial statements for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2019. Details are set out on pages from 21 to 57 and on 59 of the convocation notice and are also available on the company website. I'd like to present you a summary video on the matters for reporting, or as for important management issues for the company on page from 36 to 39 of the convocation notice. In addition to the video presentation, I will provide details later as part of explanation on business strategy after presenting matters for approval. Let's see the video.
日本国内で主に通信事業を営むソフトバンク株式会社は、2018年12月19日、東京証券取引所市場第一部に上場。通信事業の強化による顧客基盤の拡大と、新領域事業の創出に取り組むBeyond Carrier戦略を推進しました。通信事業では、ソフトバンク、Y!mobile、LINEモバイルの3ブランドを擁し、スマートフォンの普及拡大に向けた様々なサービスを展開。スマートフォンの累計契約数、ブロードバンド累計契約数ともに順調に拡大しました。新領域事業では、コミュニティ型ワークスペースのWeWork Japan。タクシー配車プラットフォームのDiDiモビリティジャパン株式会社。オンデマンドモビリティサービスのMONET Technologies株式会社などの新会社を通じて、様々な領域で事業の立ち上げに取り組みました。こうした取り組みの結果、ソフトバンク事業の2018年度の営業利益は7,251億円となり、前年度比6%の増加となりました。なお、2019年5月8日、ソフトバンク株式会社は、ヤフー株式会社の連結子会社化を目的とした株式の追加取得を発表。これにより、シナジーの最大化を図るとともに、新領域事業の強化を加速させていきます。国内インターネット市場において最大級の利用者数を有するYahoo!では、2018年度の広告関連売上収益が3,238億円となり、前年度比7%の増加となりました。ショッピング事業の取扱高は7,692億円となり、前年度比23%の増加。2018年10月に提供を開始したスマホ決済サービスPayPayは、「100億円あげちゃうキャンペーン」の実施などにより、開始から7ヶ月で累計登録者数が700万人を超えました。Yahoo!は、利用者数やeコマース取扱高の拡大、新規事業立ち上げなどへの投資を積極的に行うことで、今後もさらなる成長を目指していきます。米国で携帯電話事業を営むSprintでは、昨年度に引き続き、業績の向上とネットワーク品質のさらなる改善に取り組みました。2018年度の売上高は336億ドルとなり、前年度比4%の増加。調整後EBITDAは128億ドルとなり、5年で倍増しました。Sprintは、豊富に保有する2.5GHz帯を活用した5Gネットワークの構築を推進。2019年6月末までに米国9都市で商用サービスを開始する予定です。IoT時代の中心的な役割を担うと期待されるArm Holdingsは、エンジニアなどの新規雇用を増強し、研究開発への投資を加速しています。2018年のArmベースのチップ出荷数は229億個となり、前年比8%の増加となりました。将来的には1兆個のチップがIoTに組み込まれる時代が到来すると予見。その時代を見据えて、2018年8月に、あらゆる規模のIoTデバイスやデータをシームレスかつセキュアに接続管理できるIoTプラットフォームPelionを発表しました。ソフトバンクグループは、今後もArm Holdingsを中核的な存在として位置付け、その潜在力を最大限に引き出しながら、グローバルな成長戦略を推進していきます。中国などで主にeコマース事業を展開するアリババグループでは、中核事業であるeコマース事業やクラウド事業などが引き続き順調に拡大しました。その結果、アリババの2019年3月期の売上高は6兆1,689億円となり、前年度比51%の増加。純利益は1兆5,291億円となり、前年度比12%の増加。また、フリーキャッシュフローは1兆7,103億円となり、前年度比4%の増加となりました。世界中の有望なテクノロジー企業への投資を目的とした、コミットメント総額10兆円規模のファンド、SoftBank Vision Fundは、活動開始以来、70社以上に投資を行いました。コミュニティ型ワークスペースを運営するWeWork。インド最大級のホテルネットワークのOyo。血液のゲノム解析によるがん診断事業を営むGuardant Health。そして、インド最大級の決済サービスを提供するPaytmなど、既存の投資先企業が順調に成長しています。また、2018年度も投資先企業が引き続き拡大。ライドシェア事業を営むUber、DiDi、Grab、AIを活用したデジタルメディアプラットフォームのByteDance、韓国最大級のECサイトを運営するCoupang、インドネシア最大級のオンラインマーケットプレイスであるTokopedia、自動運転技術を開発するCruiseなどへの投資を行いました。また、2018年度はFlipkartとNVIDIAの投資回収に成功しました。Flipkart株式の売却により、1,467億円の投資利益を計上したことに加えて、NVIDIAへの投資は投資期間累計で3,068億円の利益を生み出しました。SoftBank Vision Fundは、今後も次世代のイノベーションを実現しようとしている企業や、プラットフォームビジネスに対して、大規模かつ長期的に投資することにより、情報革命を加速させていきます。SoftBank Group Corp.は、戦略的持ち株会社として300年成長し続ける企業グループを目指し、AI群戦略を加速させていきます。情報革命で人々を幸せに。
That is the presentation of using the video. The results of audit by independent auditor and audit and the supervisory board of consolidated financial statements are reported in independent auditor's report and audit report by the company's Audit and Supervisory Board on pages 57 and 59 of the convocation notice, respectively. I would like to inform you of two important subsequent events that occurred after preparation of financial statements for fiscal year ended in March 2019. First, on June 10th, the SoftBank Group retired treasury stock of 55,753,200 common shares to increase the shareholders' value. Second event is related into a variable prepared forward contract to sell shares in Alibaba Group Holding Limited between the wholly-owned subsidiary of SoftBank Group Corp., a mandatory exchangeable trust in June 2016, whereby the subsidiary delivered American depository shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited in settlement.
Consequently, SoftBank Group expects to record pre-tax and profit of approximately JPY 1.2 trillion, including a gain on sale and a gain from reversal of derivative financial liabilities in its consolidated financial statements for the three-month period ending June 30th, 2019. Subsidiary received $5.4 billion equivalent to the net and proceeds received by the trust from issuance of mandatory exchangeable into American depository shares of Alibaba Group Holding Limited, of which total offering size was $6.6 billion. That is all for important subsequent events. I would like to present the matters for approval. Before we proceed, I would like you to take note that your questions, motions, or comments regarding the matters for reporting and approval will be taken after the presentation on the matters for approval and the business strategy.
After the last question or comment is finished, we will take votes on matters for approval only. Are there any objections? Thank you very much. With the approval, we will follow this approach. Proposal 1 is appropriation of surplus. Details of the proposed appropriation are set out on page eight of the convocation notice. We propose to pay a year-end dividend for this term of JPY 22 per share. This means the annual dividend for FY 2018, including interim dividend, is JPY 44 per share. Proposal 2 is the election of 12 board directors. The terms of office of the present 12 board directors will expire at the conclusion of this annual general meeting of shareholders. It is proposed that 12 board directors be elected. The details of the proposal are set out on the pages from page nine through 17 of the convocation notice.
Proposal 3 is election of one audit and supervisory board member. Of the present four audit and supervisory board members, the term of office of Mr. Maurice Atsushi Toyama will expire at the conclusion of this annual general meeting of shareholders. It is proposed that one audit and supervisory board member be elected. SBG has obtained the consent of the audit and supervisory board for this proposal. Details of the proposed appropriation are set out on page 18 of the convocation notice. I would like to present the business strategy by incorporating the important management issues that are set out on the pages from 36 to 39 of the convocation notice.
As we show you on the video, our EBIT exceeded JPY 2 trillion the first time. Amongst the EBIT, as you can tell, the blue portion, that's the SoftBank Vision Fund, is the key driving engine for the EBIT of our company. Allocation of my time, allocation of my brain, I would say 97% of those are used for SoftBank Vision Fund right now, intensively. The net income, we were able to record over JPY 1 trillion for three consecutive years. After transforming to investment company, SoftBank Group has a more important KPI rather than EBIT or net income, which is shareholder value, which is the equity value of holdings, less net debt. That's one of the most important KPI to show the value of a company. This number is actually now JPY 22 trillion.
Per share basis, as for your asset, JPY 20,500, so over JPY 20,000 value there. The current share price is about JPY 10,000 or so. Your value per share right now, built it in, that share is actually exceeding JPY 20,000. That is the status that we have been seeing as a growth of the company. Especially in the past five, six months, I believe we see especially rapid increase in our group. Here, we transform to investment company, what is the SoftBank Group? That is once again that we would like to question ourselves. To see the even more big picture, probably better to see the history. That is the thing that I usually think. We look back to Industrial Revolution, I want you to think about that.
At the time of the Industrial Revolution, about 200 or 300 years ago, Industrial Revolution started as steam engine, automobiles, electricity. Those Industrial Revolution happened everywhere in the world, especially, these are the entrepreneurs-led Industrial Revolution. As you can see the face photos on the slide, they are other one, actually injected their motivation, injected their soul to bring such Industrial Revolution. For example, electricity. Thomas Edison established electricity supply system. Henry Ford, commoditizing automobiles. John Rockefeller, who provided steady supply of oils. J.P. Morgan, who supported the industry with finance. The bank groups also supported the industry to see such an Industrial Revolution. This Industrial Revolution led by these people actually changed people's lifestyle all over the world. Even in the revenue rankings, nine out of 10 companies, top 10 companies, are occupied by oils, automobiles, electricities, and so on.
Most of them are from U.S. Immediately after the Industrial Revolution, actually, the occupational structure-wise, more than 60% of the people's occupation was agriculture. Around the Meiji Restoration era, about 90% of the labor population in Japan was in agricultural business. Right now, if you look at the U.S., only 2% people are the agriculturals, and probably 5% for Japan. Which means Industrial Revolution has changed people's lifestyle, also changed the definition of occupation. Labor population has been shifted dramatically. As a result of such revolution, GDP has increased 260 times during such 150 years. Majority are actually coming from those companies who led Industrial Revolution. Having said that, we are facing even bigger revolution than Industrial Revolution, which is Information Revolution. About 25 years ago, internet traffic has grown by 1 million times.
Just about the second, people's life could not tell or could not spend without internet. Internet companies are going public one after another, and the market cap of such companies, in the same time, has grown to 1,000 times, especially in the latest 10 years. This red line is the internet traffic. Which is the information volume of the Internet, and the blue lines are the market cap of the Internet companies. You can see they are relative to each other, so they are showing the same trend of the growth. About 25 years ago, top 10 of the market cap in the world are these companies. Interestingly, only one company, which is Japanese, which is NTT. They were actually recording the biggest market cap back then. IT-related, only IBM was in this top 10 companies, only 25 years ago.
As of today, these are the top 10 of the market cap, of which seven companies, almost seven companies from the top are the internet related companies. When you look at the market cap, number is completely different from what you have just saw in the previous page. Meaning internet has changed people's lifestyle, has changed equity market in terms of market cap. This Internet has revolutionized only in two segments, roughly speaking. One is the advertisement, the other is retail business. Amongst the G.D.P. U.S., only 1% for advertisement and 6% in retail business. Internet was actually influenced to these two segments. You see now, AI revolution has been influencing all the segments in all businesses and also redefining all those businesses. That's how I believe right now. AI, I think this is the biggest revolution in human history.
Like internet traffic, without intelligence, which is like a raw data in the past. Now the internet AI traffic does add it with the intelligence. This AI revolution, actually, as you saw, those people, entrepreneurs, lead the industrial revolutions. Now that here we see the AI entrepreneurs are leading AI revolutions, and they are putting more efforts to further develop the business. Amongst these entrepreneurs, AI entrepreneurs, what is the SoftBank's role? SoftBank Group, we don't develop the autonomous driving technology. We don't develop any AI technology, anything like that. What is the SoftBank Group? I think I want to be the conductor. That's the kind of image I have. When I was a child, about 1st or 2nd grade, I saw the conductor in orchestra, and I was wondering, "What is he doing? Who is he?" He is very strange position.
He's not playing any piano. He's not playing any violin. He doesn't play any instrument. He's standing at the center of the stage, looks like he's leading or ordering pianist, guitarist, violinist. He was the conductor. He was leading, but compared to pianist, can he really play piano? Can he really play better violin than him? He may not be able to play such well, but why he is leading those orchestra? He was very strange, and I was so curious about it. Conductor doesn't play any instrument. However, we can see as if conductor plays everything. Although he's not playing anything, but he plays everything. What does that mean? When I grow up, I start understanding what that means.
When you hear many orchestras, sometimes I go see a concert, look at on TVs and so on, even the same songs, but the harmony is completely different. "New World," the Dvořák, which is my favorite music. I like to hear that, but based, depending on the conductor, harmony is different, sound is different. Conductor doesn't play anything, but actually he plays everything. Only by one person, songs changes a bit, largely. Like Steve Jobs, he wasn't programming by himself. He wasn't designing hardware, hardly. However, he was able to aggregate and lead designers, programmers to create iPhones and so many great products. For me, I want to be the conductor of AI revolution. Those top players, top pianist, top violinist, cellos, all voice. Those top players, I want to have them orchestrate the AI revolution.
Players in orchestra is actually the entrepreneurs or experts in each segment. For example, autonomous driving. I think the ride share is coming. Sharing the ride. Without you driving, this is like an advanced platform of taxi, which is growing rapidly in the world. Per day, about 70 million riders on this business, so it's rapidly increasing. About 90% of the market share is taken by these companies you see on the slide. Those four companies, such as Uber in the United States, DiDi in China, Grab in Southeast Asia, and Ola in India. Those four companies are actually taking 90% of market share. What is common amongst those four are that they are invested by our SoftBank Vision Fund as a leading shareholder. WeWork, new way of office sharing in new world, or also proposing a new working community space.
Again, making a rapid growth. That working community has been redefined by this company, Oyo. This is one of the largest hotel network in India. Now, just in one year, they became second biggest hotel network in China, only in one year. This year, in United States, in U.K., in Southeast Asia, that they are growing their market worldwide. They will becoming the largest hotel network in the world. This, again, is the investee of SoftBank Vision Fund. Paytm in India, it's like a Alipay in Japan, or Alipay in China. They are also the leader in payments in India. They changed the payment process in lifestyle. Coupang in South Korea, they are like Amazon in South Korea. They are also making great growth.
If I pick up one by one, I think I want to spend 48 hours, but still I will not be able to speak everything. I'm so excited to see such a great investment in such a great companies. Every week basis, I have a chance to meet them, and also meeting with new investees. Every time we have a meeting, I'm so excited. Oh, that's what you're doing. That's completely new business model, completely new products. They are using AIs in new angles, that makes me so surprising. Their angle is really new with young generations, young entrepreneurs coming into the market. I'm so impressed. There we have a SoftBank Vision Fund, as a big sponsor and becoming the largest shareholder, and also show that this is the number one in the world.
This is the number one in the market, that if you have some partnership with this company, you may be able to have a better business, better company. They can stimulate each other, and they can grow each other in synergies. If we introduce them, each other, they start talking by themselves, and they are so motivated and excited. Actually is the strongest and strongest partnering together and actually harmonizing the music. SoftBank has become a strategic holding company, as you know. What we can say strongly is that we are focusing on information revolution, and information revolution started with PC, and we started wholesaling software. Once internet era began, we entered the market, and we started broadband business to speed up the internet. By talking to Steve Jobs, we got a deal to sell iPhone exclusively.
We started growing in smartphone space. Now, AI is most advanced in technology space. At the beginning of AI revolution, we launched a SoftBank Vision Fund, over JPY 10 trillion. Well, when internet revolution started, I wish I could have invested more because I knew the internet revolution would explode. I saw it clearly. However, what I missed was cash. I didn't have cash. Unfortunately, I missed a lot of opportunities, investment opportunities, because I didn't have enough cash. Well, sometimes I was able to afford investing in Alibaba and Yahoo, for example, but I wish if I had more money back then, if I had JPY 10 trillion back then, if SoftBank had had JPY 10 trillion back then, SoftBank could have been much better than we are now, I don't want to make any excuse.
This time, without any excuse, I will make sure that we will grab every opportunity comes up. What does it mean?
capturing every opportunity. I loved fishing when I was a kid, instead of catching fish one by one, why not cast a big net over a river or over a stream together with my friends, brothers, and cousins? We got a lot of fish by casting a large net. Likewise, there are plenty of tons of venture capitals in the world, and we are investing venture capital one to one. They are investing. Last year, they financed JPY 8.6 trillion. That's all our venture capital investment combined last year. What we do is, only by ourselves, we make investment with only one fund. We want to invest as big as JPY 10 trillion, not just JPY 8.6 trillion by all venture capitals altogether in the world. Unlike traditional venture capital, what we do is to not to invest in startup.
Rather, we invest in businesses that are likely to go public, and companies that are absolutely number one in a specific market, or specific country, or specific space, and what we call unicorn companies. We focus on those unicorns. That's what we are hunting. Maybe you may call us as a unicorn hunter. We have a specific theme, we have a large volume. Therefore, we find it easy to create synergies. We create and provide synergies. That's our theory. Unless you make money, there's no point in making an investment. Like I said earlier, there are tons of venture capitals in the world. The annual average return is about 13%. 13% annual average return of a typical venture capital. We, only one fund, has a JPY 10 trillion scale, too big.
Some people may assume that the return of SoftBank Vision Fund should be much lower than 13%, because SoftBank Vision Fund over-invested or just invested in much larger companies or over-valuated companies. But in the last two years, not 13%, but we reached 45% return, annual return, IRR, that is 45%. For Vision Fund investors, common stock and preferred stock, or 7% fixed rate distribution is being provided to SoftBank Vision Fund investors, rather, and LP net blended IRR is 29%. For those of you are shareholders of SoftBank Group. From your perspective, the return to those SoftBank Vision Fund investors, we get a performance fee. Including that performance fee, how much shareholders have made in terms of money, which is probably more relevant to you, SoftBank shareholders. That's 62% net equity IRR.
1.6 times bigger in the first year, and 1.6 times more growth in the second year. All venture capitals include our combined, we delivered a much bigger return than all venture capitals in the world combined. Vision Fund investors are happy. SoftBank Vision Fund 1 will be ended pretty soon, I believe. They expect us to establish SoftBank Vision Fund 2. We do one by one. Once Vision Fund 1, JPY 10 trillion investment is all used up, we will move to Vision Fund 2. SoftBank Vision Fund 1 investors, most of them want to join SoftBank Vision Fund 2 here, so we will start discussing with them more in deep. Two years ago, when our Vision Fund was launched, we didn't have experts in investment.
Before SoftBank Vision Fund, in the last 18 years, SoftBank invested in Alibaba and Yahoo, but we were not experts in terms of investment. Rather, it was like my hobby, if you will. By that, what I mean is I made a decision mostly by myself, and I used probably a couple of assistants to make such an investment. Yahoo! and Yahoo! BB, and Vodafone Japan. While we are running those businesses, when I had spare time, like 3% of my time, I used the time for investment. That was 18 years ago, before SoftBank Vision Fund. Now it's not my hobby anymore. We have a group of experts, I spend 97% of my time and brain, rather than 3%. Over 400 investment experts are working on this investment, and it's likely to be over 1,000 employees going forward.
What we make is, like I said earlier, SoftBank is conductor, Uber, DiDi, and WeWork, and all those companies are the players of the instrument. If that's the case, what we do is to make sure that they play the music happily and make sure that audiences come to see the music. I will retire eventually, my directors and executives will retire eventually. Looking at this Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, their conductors have changed many times, and players have changed many times, but they have over 200 years of history. That history, even though the players have changed and the conductors have changed, the ecosystem of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra has survived 200 years, and I assume, I expect them to continuously thrive for another 200 years and more. What we want to make is ecosystem, not a conductor or not a player of music.
We want to make an ecosystem by making investment in those potential investees and generating synergies with SoftBank Group companies. We want to create an ecosystem. Over 50 years and 100 years, tradition and brand should be established. Tradition and brand, once an ecosystem is created, even 300 years later, that ecosystem remains fresh because it preserves tradition and brand. It is not going to be obsolete. What is SoftBank Group? I said, I questioned. My answer is, SoftBank is not just creating a technology or creating a service offering. Rather, what SoftBank Group does is to accumulate, aggregate technology and business models created by those music players, if you will, and SoftBank Group is the center of the orchestra. SoftBank Group is not playing music, but playing every music as an orchestra. I launched SoftBank as a business, and SoftBank Group works to turn our vision into reality.
That is my motto. Saying is easy. Intelligent people might say words, say things. It is easy to say things. You can say anything you like. You can complain, or you can say anything. Doing things is not easy. Saying things is easy, but doing things is not easy because there are a lot of challenges you have to overcome. You can make excuses, but in harsh reality, there are things you have to say, there are things you have to think, there are things you have to have. From my perspective, that is a big vision or big dream. What Japan misses is a big dream, I think. Mr. Konosuke Matsushita and Soichiro Honda and Sony's founder, Morita, they talked big. They said that they wanted to be the richest guy or our motorcycle be the best in the world. They talked big.
They were crazy, and they talked big. I think that was a motivation for Japan to become big. Now, looking at Japan now, it is very restrained, and a lot of business leaders are hesitant and negative. I think what Japan needs is to talk big and have a big dream. In Japanese, it is said, "Obora," and in English, it is a big vision. It sounds very positive. Obora in Japanese actually sounds negative, it is dubious. When you say big vision, it sounds cool, so cool. I prefer Obora, which may sound very dubious. Looking back, in 2004, actually, in this particular place, room, back then, I made Obora, or I talked big. I asked my team to find a video of what I said. It is just a big dream. Please take it as my big dream.
If I can achieve recording JPY 1 trillion or JPY 2 trillion of sales in my 40s, then I would further aim for recording JPY 1 trillion or JPY 2 trillion of profit when I hand over the business in my 60s. It just is a big dream, just a dream. Do not take it too seriously. That I said in 2004, JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion of profit, I said that. In fact, we lost JPY 100 billion back then. Four years in a row, we made red. We lost JPY 100 billion. I said to shareholders, "Eventually, please be patient. SoftBank will become big. We will do this, we will do that," and I talked, explained our strategy to shareholders back then. Shareholders would say, "Okay, but when did you make a profit?
When did we see share price going up?" I said, like in the video, I talked very honestly. It was a big dream. I know that I talked big, but that was what I thought in my mind, honestly. Now, 15 years later, in this room, like I said earlier, in 3 years, consecutively, we recorded JPY 1 trillion profit. Back then, I was glad that I was not kicked off. I have been talking big since I was younger. In the first month of my business launch, I had only two employees. In front of those two people, we made a morning huddle or morning meeting. At 9:00 A.M., I spoke for about 30 minutes. I spoke passionately.
I said to them, two people, two employees, "Let's make our sales of JPY 50 billion in 5 years, in 10 years, JPY 100 billion, and eventually, let's make JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion of profit eventually." Do you know a shop of tofu shop? Tofu? Count of tofu is cho. When they count the tofu in tofu shop, they count one cho, two cho, or JPY 1 trillion or JPY 2 trillion. Trillion in Japanese is cho, and count of tofu is cho. I try to make some correlation. When you count tofu in Japan, we count tofu one cho, two cho, or in English, I would say JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion, when you count tofu in Japan. Joking aside, I would say that we should count our profit by trillion or cho, like we count tofu by cho, JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion.
Those two employees, they lost their speech. In one week, they left me. They left the company. I was alone by myself, and I learned a lesson. I thought that maybe I shouldn't talk big that often. Maybe once in 30 years, maybe I can talk big. I try not to talk big for another 30 years. In 2004, in a room here I talk big, and in 2010, June 25, I explained next 30-year vision. Like we showed you a video, we wanted to count our profit by trillion, JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion, but rather not just one, two, but we want to make it 10, 20. SoftBank Group, at the moment, market cap is about JPY 10 trillion, and your shareholder value is about JPY 20 trillion, I believe. In 20 years later, compared to we launched the next 30-year vision 10 years ago.
In 20 years, like after 30 years of next 30-year vision, we want to count our profit by trillion, not by one or two, or 100, 200. We want to count our profit by JPY 100 trillion, JPY 200 trillion. If it's JPY 100 trillion, JPY 200 trillion, just JPY 1 trillion, JPY 2 trillion would be rounding error, just margin of error. That's what I want to say in 30 years. I'm getting excited as we speak. I know it's running over time, but again, I'm getting excited. Market cap, it was JPY 2.7 trillion when we announced the next 30-year vision, and we were equivalent to 200 in world rank. We said that we want to make our market cap up to JPY 200 trillion, then we should be ranked in top 10 of the world.
That's what I said back in 2010, from 2.7 trillion to 200 trillion in 30 years to make it happen. What kind of growth rate we should achieve yearly? That's 15%. At this moment, we have been growing 16% per year against 15% per year we should achieve. That's performance achievement. The more we talk, the more we believe that we can do it. We should put ourselves into the corner. You can't go back. No matter what it takes, we should do it. That kind of spirit you should have to make things happen. People would say that you'd go bankrupt, and you'd be heavily indebted. I would say that we are borrowing money for growth. We are investing for growth. That's how we have been doing business. We delivered results.
That's what we have to do, and that's what a winner can do. Against 15% per year target, if you will, we have been achieving 16% per year growth. From shareholders' value perspective, it's 22% per year, not 16% a year. Every year, we have been growing 22% from shareholder value perspective. Share price should come. Eventually, share price should follow. In theory, the more bills you have in your wallet, the value of the wallet should grow accordingly. If you are confident, you feel happy, and when you talk big, it makes me happy. 200 trillion. If you said 200 trillion, the share price tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, it's not a big deal. Well, I'm sure the shareholders want to ask a lot of question about share price and dividend, but why don't you dream big?
Again, just a big dream. Please don't take it seriously. My dream is serious. Anyway, our market cap has been growing, and Vision Fund is a driver of our growth. I spend 97% of my time and spirit is put in Vision Fund. At this moment, about JPY 3 trillion is the value of the SoftBank Group's investment. Blue part, SoftBank Vision Fund. Of JPY 10 trillion, JPY 3 trillion is invested by SoftBank Group, which has been growing. Assume, suppose that, let's say SoftBank Vision Fund 1, JPY 3 trillion, and assume it's not promised or it's not confirmed the finance, but suppose that SoftBank Vision Fund 2 has same size of investment made by shareholders or your money.
Suppose we put equivalent amount of money, which is JPY 6 trillion altogether. If this JPY 6 trillion grows 62% year-on-year, if you grow 15% annually, you should hit JPY 200 trillion in 20 years. A part of that is Vision Fund. If you look only at Vision Fund, and if it can grow 62%, it will be tremendous. Maybe starting from JPY 6 trillion, like this. Start small, six. This is the starting line. This is money in hand. It's so small, but it's just by scale. By scale, it's so small, but it's small because the later part will be big. Again, let's say 60% growth. 62% is too good to be true. Maybe you should go more conservatively rather than 62%. Let's say IRR is 35%, not 62%. If it continue grow for 10 years, IRR 35%, then it will be 20 times.
35% continuously for 10 years, it will be 20 times. Next 10 years, the remaining 20 years of 30 years, our next 30-year vision. The first 10 years, 30% IRR. Excuse me. The first 10 years grew 62% IRR, next 10 years, maybe not that high as 60% IRR. Let's say 35% IRR the next round, 20 times. If it's 26% rather than 35%, it will be 10 times. 20 times 10 is 200 times. It's scary, actually. That's the magic of compound growth.
For 10 years, 200 times, JPY 6 trillion by 20, 200 times, it is going to be a horrific number, JPY 1,200 trillion. Japan's GDP is JPY 500 trillion, so more than double. It is supposed to be a huge big talk. Everybody thinks that is going to be too much. Well, there will be such investment opportunities. We are going to possess those shares not only for as long as 20 years, some of them are going to be sold out. Maybe the JPY 1,200 trillion is a too much figure to talk about. Well, instead of 26 times, for example, IRR stays at 19% for the period of 20 years, 33 times. JPY 200 trillion. It is in the order of 100 cho and 200 cho. This is a logic, and it is not ungrounded calculation. You should not take it too seriously.
This is not a business plan. It is just a big talk. You have to take it and give it a discount, but at least it may be possible that we will be able to achieve this target, maybe 60% and 40%. Well, before the Vision Fund or SVF, for the past 20 years, 44% increase every year. For 18 years, 44%. For the most recent two years, 60%. If you look at my track record, over 40% in growth, that continued. Into the next 20 years, it will be possible that 19% could be achievable. This is supposed to be a hypothetical argument, but at least we will be able to be prepared for that scenario to come. This is a big talk, big vision. Based on that big vision, we have the strategy to deliver that vision.
I was only talking about monetary matters in the order of trillion. It may be too much to talk about. You may think that I am a vulgar swindler. I will not go into all the details anymore. The money is also very important, and the shareholders' value is also very important. At the same time, money is the result of the business activities and strategy. We are not born for the sake of money-making. That is not true. Money-making is important, but the life is not simply determined by money-making. More than that, rather, the informational revolution we are promoting, we would like to offer happiness to people. That is our ideal, and that is the vision, and that is the driving force of the creation of this company.
We came up with the next 20-year vision, starting from the very first 30-year vision. This new 30-year vision is a serious vision. I think, years ago, that I was talking about the possibility of realization of brain computer in connection with the next 30-year vision. The progress of a computer is accelerating and exponentially growing. When it comes to number of transistors, it would go beyond the number of neurons, exceeding the 30 billion. It was expected in 2018, the number of transistors will exceed 30 billion. In fact, this was materialized one year ahead of our expectation, and this growth is continuing. Not only the number of CPUs, GPU, TPUs, and quantum computing, there will be different ways for the acceleration of hardware. AIs, to make use of the hardware, is going into further growth in the form of brain computer.
AI, on its part, and for its part, is going to be the biggest important point now in the near future. In the following years, we started talk about the singularity. The same story. The computers are created by human beings. The computers with intelligence may go beyond that of human beings, so it is going to be a super intelligence. That's what singularity means. What will be brought about as a result? Not only the next 30 years, but going beyond those years, within the frame of 300 years, the life expectancy may reach 200 years in 300 years' time. For that to be achieved, AI is going to be further developed in many forms, and it will be able to give solutions to issues that human beings were not able to solve. With this vision, the SVF started to make investments.
For example, Guardant is one of such envisioning companies. The blood is being tested so that the cancer can be detected, and that will lead into the prolonged life expectancy. These technologies are going to come one after another, and as a result, in 30 years' time, that the life expectancy is going to be extended up to 200 years. Then the coexistence with intelligent robots, and that is something we were talking about in those years, coexistence with intelligent robots, which was expected and anticipated. SVF, for its part, is now making investment in companies that are creating and developing intelligent robots. The big data in those years are going to be embraced in the cloud computing system, and they are going to be served as assets, and everything is going to be connected with the internet.
We acquired Arm, and in this way, that we open up the world, ourselves to the world of one trillion chips in IoT. Oyo, ByteDance. The life that is going to be personalized will be able to be materialized, and the life with the safety food can be provided by Plenty, for example. Then No Accident will be realized with the support of autonomous driving. We are making a serious investment in that area. Diagnostics of DNA will further promote a world where sad stories and sad deaths are going to be eliminated, and we will be able to usher in such a new world. In other words, we may be grateful to anyone else, but without thinking about that, SoftBank, and SoftBank Group, and our family companies will be able to bring solutions to every aspect of people's life.
This is something we would like to envision to materialize. As I mentioned earlier, we are talking about the monetary order of 1 trillion, 10 trillion, or 100 trillion. What is more important, at least for me, and any return for my work, is that many people in the world will be able to lead happier life. My company, and our company, may be involved in such effort. I hope that our company will be able to share a certain portion of happiness with them, and that would give my utmost pleasure. For shareholders, the shareholders, for me, are the comrades who share the same vision. By owning our shares, my company's shares, you will also devote yourself to offering happiness to the people around the world. That's what is the goal that we will devote ourselves to. This is what SoftBank stands for.
That is my best answer to that question, Information Revolution, Happiness for Everyone. Thank you very much.
Again, I'm very happy. I'd like to take your questions, motions, or comments on the matters for reporting approval or any statement you want to make on the deliberations. If you have any questions or comments, please hold up either sheet of paper, blue or pink, that we handed out at the entrance so I can see it. If I call upon you, please state your admission card number only, not your name. Please be concise in making a statement by keeping to the point. Also, you're kindly requested to ask only one question at a time so we can give a chance to as many shareholders as possible. We appreciate your cooperation. Are there any questions or comments? My number is 687. I believe in singularity, or I call myself Singularitarian, if I may.
The concept of singularity, return acceleration, the concept of return of acceleration, the speed of technology advancement should grow further. Looking at smartphone and devices, I'm not sure about further enhancement of the performance going forward. I know that Masa is a big dreamer and Masa is a conductor, and if he could give me assurance about singularity. Yes. Thank you for your question. I have a strong conviction. We are. It's speeding up. It's speeding up. When PC was born, from 8-bit CPU to 16-bit CPU, and 16 to 32, and people might say that 32 would be the maximum. CPU won't enhance further from 16 to 32. That would be the end, many people would thought. Lotus 1-2-3 is enough with 32-bit CPU. After that is growing exponentially. Internet is growing, traffic is growing exponentially, like I mentioned earlier. CPU has and will evolve.
Maybe GPU, TPU, or hardware may be different, and software may be different, the Python and everything. New technology comes in and they evolve in different ways. As they grow, and of course, deep learning has just started, and Dr. Matsuo of University of Tokyo should become our board member going forward. Again, we're at the beginning, and I'll ask Dr. Matsuo to give us a few words later in this area. As far as I'm concerned, this is just the beginning. AI is just beginning. Vision Fund has great opportunities. As far as I am concerned, this is the gold rush of investment. The growth should be continued exponentially. That's my answer to your question. Thank you.
On this side, with the pink card in the front. 1217 is my number. The reason why I became a shareholder was that I respected you, Mr. Son. Just a few words of my gratitude. As a shareholder, I enjoy the profit, and thank you very much for the introduction of a share split scheme. As a shareholder, going forward, I will be able to provide full support to your efforts. Thank you very much. Mr. Son and all the board members, I hope that you will be in good shape so that you will be able to skillfully manage the company. Thank you very much.
I hope other questions are going to be like that.
Person with a pink sheet, please. Over there. In the G row. My number is 2006. When I was 23 years old, I start a company, a natural energy-related business, and I feel privileged to see you and talk with you in person. I have one concern. In a company in the U.S., for example, you want to get your company registered in Delaware or on Ireland, and they would often try to save the taxes. You are registered in Minato Ward in Tokyo. You are a global conglomerate now, and in order to make sure that you grow further, I wonder, do you have any idea to save tax payment, or if you have any plan or idea how to save your tax payment? It's a balance. It's important to strike a balance.
We, SoftBank, were born in Japan. SoftBank has been supported by people in Japan, and we want to return to people in Japan. That's very important for us. Contributing to Japanese society is very important, too. In the meantime, global investors do things under a global rule. Legally, they can save taxes. Legally, that's, of course, a smart way. As far as our investment fund is concerned, there are a lot of investors in our investment fund. We need to pay attention to capital efficiency, and we want to pay attention to contribution to society. That's a balance we have to make when we run a business, SoftBank Group and SoftBank Corp. and Yahoo Japan, who are paying a lot of taxes.
We will continue running our operations. As far as we can do, as far as we are legally allowed, we want to seek a way to save payment. Tax can be tricky. Sometimes timing difference takes place. This year or next year, which year we should recognize the profit? We have a lot of discussions, actually. Depending on timing, we might be seen as missing payment of tax. What we have to pay, we will pay. Under the framework of legal rules globally, as far as investment outside Japan, we can do within a legal framework in terms of tax saving. Thank you.
Column A, with the blue card. The third row.
279. As an investment firm, there is a new launch. The amount of investment is related to my question. What is supposed to be the criteria to determine the amount? I would like to ask this question of you. According to your past comments, about 30% is supposed to be the size of the return that you would expect from making an investment. I think according to your past comments, that's what you mentioned. Depending on the situation, well, the ratio is going to be varied, larger or smaller. When it comes to Alibaba investment, I think that the JPY 2 billion in the initial stage, and in the case of Yahoo, JPY 10 billion. There were some different numbers in the starting stage. 30% is supposed to be the return number, and that's what you have mentioned.
When it comes to WeWork, I think it is closer to 50%, and that's what is supposed to be your aim. The investment amount or the percentage of investment, they all differ depending on the company you make investment in. What is the criteria for the decision? Is it supposed to be SoftBank, or other partners, or the investees? Within this kind of process, the timing of a sell-off. In the case of an Indian e-commerce company, for instance, going forward, I think it is expected to grow. That said, you made a decision to sell it off, and then you are now enjoying a huge amount of profits. What is the criteria for the decision? NVIDIA was sold off, and what is the reason for the timing? In general terms, 10%-40%.
On average, 20%-30% is supposed to be the investment ratio. We are supposed to be a principal investor in 80%-90% of cases. The amount depends on the company, and the amount of investment is supposed to be determined by the level of excitement that we may have. Also, there's going to be the posture of the investee. It is going to depend on the two factors. On average, about 20%-30% is supposed to be the rate of shareholding. We do not seek taking full control on the investee. We do not seek to gain 50% equity. With regard to the timing of sale, it depends, as a matter of fact. If we would like to purchase the company, and the management believes that the company needs to be sold off, we do not force them to do so.
The management team of the, for example, Flipkart, the management of the Flipkart. On that occasion, Walmart and Amazon were the two potential buyers, and through the process of negotiation, we decided to sell it to Walmart. The employees and the management team were willing to work in collaboration with Walmart so that they could expect synergetic effects. We also agreed to that idea. In the early stage already, as far as we are concerned, we were confident that we would be able to determine the fair amount of returns. There are also other investors. The majority of the investors have to consent to that initiative. Therefore, it is important to hold majority of shareholders to agree. When it comes to our position, 20% or 30% equity holding.
When the company is going to go listed, depending on how the share prices are going to be, we also look into the future prospect and IRR, that means the potential return on our investment. We have to make sure that the return is not going to come down. When the company goes mature, we may decide to sell that kind of a company. In fact, we have some other figures or criteria, and I will not go into all the details. That's the balanced approach that we take.
In the row with the pink card, please. Card number 453. Thank you. I have a son with me. My son loves you. In fact, we visited the headquarter of your company. We knew that we were not allowed to enter, but we wanted to see you by chance. Of course, we knew we wouldn't see you, but we went to a shop, because my son thought that you might be working at the shop. In fact, that's how much my son loves you. My son is five years old, and he is going to a lot of cram schools, and he's busy studying. He's wondering what kind of things that he has to learn, and he's too shy to ask you that question. On behalf of him, may I ask you what he should study going forward for his future?
Well, when I was a kid, what most interested me, what most excited me. Interest and excitement, if you go deeper in your interest or your excitement, I think it's very important. Your interest might be bugs or trains or mathematics or English, whatever. What you're interested in most, I think one important thing is to go deeper in your interest area. Also balance is important, too. You may want to study
Varieties of things in good balance, not just only one thing. On top of that, if I may, you want to think, what do you want to be when you grow up? You want to be a businessman? You want to be athlete? You want to be a scholar? If your son might say that he wants to be a businessman, maybe it's too early. Tiger Woods, just one year old or two years old, he said he wanted to be a golfer, and he practiced every day. Whether it's skating or piano, at the age of two or three, in many cases, they started having a vision as early as age two or three. It's not too early to have a dream. Maybe even though he's young, too young, having a specific dream.
So long as you have a specific dream and so long as you have a passion, you'll find a way. You will find what you want to study, and you will get excited and you will get motivated. In traditional Japanese education, so business may sound negative. It's just money, and money is something dirty. I don't think so, because what Japan needs now is entrepreneur. For Japanese future, there are a lot of challenges around the pension system and everything. Unless the country is rich, unless country grows, people in that country can't have a dream. I think it's a good thing, young guys, young boys and girls, who say they want to do business in the future. Hope that your son will have one or two dreams, very specific dreams, that will find your son way. Thank you.
C column in the front rows with the person with less hair. I feel closer to you. 1601. Thank you for the. The measles, this is supposed to be a big issue. Going forward, we're going to have the Tokyo Olympics, AI revolution involves human power, Fast Retailing and SoftBank, the shareholders have to deal with the measles. The measles, if it is going to be contracted by people, that would have a negative impact. Inoculation is important. There should be two ways, for the subsidies to be provided, those men in their 40s and their 50s need to be provided the free of charge coupons to check the condition, the coupons can be provided. Excuse me to make an investment. Sorry, Sago-san and Professor Matsuo-san belong to this age category. For the pregnant mothers, I'm sorry to intervene.
Please ask a question related to matters for deliberation. The snake farm, which is a Thai hospital, offers such a subsidy for inoculation, vaccination. That if you're going in to make the vaccination. I think the company needs to take countermeasures and to prevent the outbreak of measles. Let's think about it. Thank you very much.
I want to see a female questioner. My number is 1021. Mr. Son, how long will you be CEO? I think that's very important for SBG. It's very big thing. It's a big deal. Up to 99 years old, I want you to stay on top. You can do it. You can do it. Once you become 100, you'll retire and enjoy your life after retirement as you become 100 years old. I am 75 years old, I will continue coming here every year for another 30 years. Please stay on top until 100 years old. Thank you very much. At the age of 19, I made a 50-year life plan. From 60 to 69 years old, I should take over to successor. That was my plan. When I become 68 or 69 years old, I might think that I might change my mind.
If I stay healthy, I still feel energized, I may change my mind. At this moment, until the age 69, take over, I have someone to succeed my role and have a company continue growing. Even though I pass my baton of CEO role to somebody else, maybe I may stay as a Chairman, not as a CEO. It's not all or nothing, maybe in a different role, maybe step by step, I might succeed, I might have someone to succeed my business, because still I am enjoying running a business. I will continue thinking how I should have my business succeeded. I'm grateful that somebody like you are supporting me. Thank you.
On this side, with the pink card, in the third row, B column. The microphone will be brought to you. After that, in the back side of the room. My number is 639. Thank you very much for wonderful big dream, and that gives me a lot of encouragement. Thank you for that. SoftBank. I'm a big fan of SoftBank Hawks, and this year, the Hawks are suffering from a lot of injuries, and I'm somewhat concerned about the outcome. But the manager, Kudo, is such a skillful manager of the team, and thanks to his skillful management, the Hawks is competing against the top position. That really gives me a big pleasure. In this regard, I would like to make one request.
On TV, I was enjoying the SoftBank Hawks games on MX, but there are no ball games aired on TV, only games with the Giants. Going forward, information revolution, happiness, and for everyone, that is his motto. I hope that SoftBank will be able to purchase a TV station, or at least a collaboration with the TV station, so that all the Hawks games are going to be aired on TV. In fact, when I was young, I went to the TV station to purchase one, but I was rejected, so I abandoned my ambition. I have no plan at the moment of purchasing any TV station. Our ball games can be seen on smartphones. All the games can be seen and enjoyed. DAZN is one of them. I also enjoy DAZN to see ball games.
In many ways, I hope that a lot of people will be able to enjoy our games. Thank you very much.
Someone on the back, G row. 1,568, that's my number. Sprint and T-Mobile. I heard a report that a merger of Sprint and T-Mobile is facing a deadlock at the moment, or facing a challenge. Masa, could you tell me your thinking about mobile business in U.S.? When we acquired Sprint, back then, we couldn't say it officially, but on day one, we wanted to Even though we acquired Sprint alone, Sprint was far behind the top two giants, so we thought that Sprint standalone was not enough. If we were to buy telecom business in U.S., we should have both Sprint and T-Mobile together and make them a real competitor to other two giants. But Deutsche Telekom, we were able to convince them, and we agreed with the management of T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom. In the first trial, the U.S. regulator didn't approve.
In the second trial, which is where we are now, we are trying to get approval from the U.S. government and U.S. regulators. In order to get approval, we need two permissions, one from FCC and the other from DOJ. From FCC, thankfully, we got support from FCC for our merger idea. DOJ, they're still considering. It's in the process of discussion with DOJ at the moment. Hopefully, we should get approval from both regulators. We have Marcelo here with us today, Marcelo is chairman of Sprint, he took over me, he has been working so hard to talk to DOJ and FCC and other parties. He is leading discussion. Maybe I should ask him to give us a few words, or maybe share with us his thought.
An honor to be here. This is probably one of the most important mergers in telecom history, because it will allow the U.S. to continuously lead in technology, lead in 5G. We feel very optimistic that this merger should be approved, because we've made some very big commitments, such as building the world's most advanced 5G network, lowering the prices to consumers, making a commitment to bring more jobs, and covering all of the United States. Based on that, we feel very good that the Department of Justice and the other government officials will eventually approve the merger. In conclusion, we continue to dream big, and we believe we remain very optimistic. Thank you.
Thank you, Marcelo. Like he said, well, in fact, in our presentation, we talked about the Vision Fund. We have Rajeev, who is CEO of Vision Fund. Maybe I should ask him to give us some updates on Vision Fund. What do you think?
Thank you, Masa. The Vision Fund looks like it's been there for a long time, but if you look back, we are only two years old. We started investing May 2017. As Masa mentioned, we have 75 unicorns. We still remember Masa raising JPY 100 billion in May 2017. We had 40 employees in January 2017, we are 400 today. Masa already put a number of 1,000, we are trying to keep up with him. The last conclusion I would give, the Vision Fund is not a fund. It's a holding company, as Masa said, with a few investors, SoftBank being one of the largest. It has 75, 80 amazing companies, all unicorns from around the world. India, Japan, China, Europe, Latin America, U.S., and Southeast Asia, 75 to 80. When we meet in a year's time, we'll be over 100.
It's a holding company, which is an umbrella of the most successful technology companies. As of today, it is the biggest platform of technology companies, I believe in a year or two, there'll be roughly 150 technology companies under the umbrella. Some of them will be as big as $100 billion, like Uber, DiDi, ByteDance in value, some will be small, it'd be all interesting companies in every industry in the world. Thank you.
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It will take time to have all directors to talk with you. Yanai-san, Mr. Yanai, who always gives me a hard time, I'm sure you want to ask him a lot of questions. I knew you would call me up. I always object, Masa, because Masa is too bold. Too bold and too aggressive, I try to stop him, control him. In fact, he gets bolder now. He gets more aggressive because you are so supportive. It's good to have a dream, you also want to be realistic to run a business. You see, he's always like that. Today might be a bad day because you get so confident now, so confident and too confident. Shareholders, please control him. Otherwise, he'll go out of control. Mark Schwartz, he's been supporting us for a long time.
How many years? 20 years? I'll definitely want him to give us a few words. Mark?
Thank you, Masa. As many of you know, I'm stepping off the board at this time, at this AGM, after 20 or 25 years working closely with Masa and Ron Fisher and Miyauchi-san and this whole board. As you've heard in this discussion today, this is perhaps the most exciting moment in SoftBank's history. The company is healthier than it's ever been, we're more optimistic about our growth and the opportunities to invest around the world than we've ever been. I feel honored and privileged to have worked with all of you over the last two decades, I'm looking forward to many more years working with a number of companies in the portfolio of the Vision Fund. I thank you very much.
Mark was CEO of Goldman Sachs Japan and also Vice Chairman of Goldman Sachs globally. Since then, we have been working together, and he has been a great supporter for us, and we really appreciate his continued help and support. He won't be a director anymore, but going forward, investees of our Vision Fund, like WeWork, directly or indirectly, he will continue to get involved with us. It's not saying goodbye to him forever, rather, he will continue working with us. Again, I can't call upon all directors, but rather new director, Iijima-san from Mitsui Corporation, he has been supporting us for the last 12 months, and I might ask him to give us a few words. Yes. I was elected last year as a board of SoftBank Group and have been attending SoftBank board meeting for the last 12 months.
You are so charismatic, and I assumed that you would lead a board of directors meeting with your charisma. As you can see, all the board members, so it's open, especially Yanai-san. He keeps saying, "No, no." Mitsui Corporation's board meeting, we spend a lot of time to find a solution. Basically, we haven't heard a lot of no's at Mitsui Corporation's board of directors meeting. At SoftBank, our investment amount is much bigger than Mitsui's amount of investment. I have been attending board of directors meeting with some nervousness and with some seriousness. My experience is a little bit different from Mitsui, rather, depending on cases, depending on situations, I thought that I should say no sometimes.
Again, all I can say clearly that the board of directors discussion is very open and honest, so I believe that SoftBank's big vision, Masa's big vision, will be materialized. See, it's not easy because people say whatever they say. I think it's important to create an environment where people can talk openly and honestly, and it's better to have a healthy discussion, healthy dialogue. That's how the government should work. Well, we spent a lot of time. Any motion you have? The guy over there with pink.
I think JPY 2,257. It is not a motion to criticize the current situation for the benefit of shareholders. Proposal number 2, Ronald Fisher. The total amount of remuneration is JPY 3.2 billion, from SoftBank, I calculated with my device, [JPY 2,953,000] . When it comes to Mr. Ghosn, that he was criticized for high remuneration over JPY 1 billion, I think this is supposed to be too much in my view. I wonder if you agree to me, this amount should be used for the dividend payment. Proposal number 1. As President Son was talking about the dividend payment, JPY 22 per share. Now, if you calculate the dividend payment ratio, that it is as small as 3-point-something%. I think that when it comes to the banking institutions, over 50%, JPY 80 for Canon and JPY 110 for Nittetsu Bussan.
As for your company, instead of 3%, at least it should be raised into 30%, payout ratio should be around that. Instead of 22 JPY, 220 JPY. That should be the amount of the dividend. That would give more pleasure to the shareholders, and the shareholders will be more ready to support your efforts. Do you agree? Thank you for your support. 220 JPY should be the amount of the dividend payment. It is a kind of a comment instead of a motion, in my view. When it comes into Ron Fisher's remuneration and compensation, I think there was another board member, Nikesh, whose compensation was much larger. In Japan, when it comes into high compensation amounts, there is always a criticism. It is too much.
There is such a criticism and a lot of complaints are launched, outside Japan, there are some directors with a much higher compensation amount. As far as I am concerned, what is most appropriate is that to what extent each director is making contribution to the increased value of the enterprise. That is supposed to be the most important benchmark. Another important factor is that we have to attract competent business leaders, and it is a very competitive market. Nikesh, as well as Ron Fisher, there was a huge criticism lodged against Nikesh. In the U.S., for example, these days, another CEO of a company, and he is assigned into the CEO of another company, and I recently met him, and he was in good shape.
I think the amount of compensation in the current company is almost equivalent to that we offered to him in SoftBank. Those competent business leaders are living in a very intensifying and competitive market. Marcel, Rajeev, when they were running their own companies and working in other companies, I think the compensation amount was equivalent to ours or more than that. In the viewpoint of those business leaders, including Ron Fisher, I think he was also working in other fund firms, and he was invited to such investment companies, but for many years he has been staying in the company to making good contribution and to improve the profitability of the company. I think balance is very important. At the end of the day, what is most important is what kind of a contribution does that figure make in order to make improvements in the enterprise value.
That is supposed to be the most important criterion. What do you think?
It's naturally difficult to speak about one's own compensation, but let me try to explain the context of the amount that was reported. About five years ago, Son-san and I had a discussion about compensation, I chose to put all of my major compensation into SoftBank stock, that I took very much lower cash compensation because I believed in SoftBank, and that turned out to be the right decision. Five years ago, the SoftBank stock, I thought was undervalued, was prepared to bet and invest my time and effort because I believed in the future of the company, and it turned out to be the correct bet.
Five years ago, when the SoftBank stock was undervalued, he proposed that cash value could be small, instead that he asked for the stock payment. Then in five years' time, the stock value increased, that is reflected on the current status of his compensation. Even if cash was paid in full amount, I believe still that he was worth value to us. Thank you very much.
About proposal one, dividend payment. A motion was moved, we will take a vote later together with other proposals. Are there any objections for this approach? Thank you. Now that some time has passed, I will take three more questions before moving to taking votes. Somebody with the pink card in the A row. Please try to be concise, please. Number 682. This year, I purchased again SoftBank shares. I had before, I added shares, price has been going down, I had a lot of things I wanted to talk about today, Masa talked about 2004 and 2010, back then, I was at the AGM, I remembered. You talked about talking big and big dream, I realized you had an ability to make dream happen. I'm so convinced now.
I knew that you were great and have been respectful for you. I purchased your shares again, share prices have been going down, I forgot about what you said back then, I got more upset. Now I remember you had ability to make things happen. Not a question, like we saw the video of 2004 and 2010, I was there. Again, I realize you have such an ability. Yanai-san is outside director, now I know that Yanai-san is also supportive. Again, I feel more confident than before. That's what I wanted to say. You have a motion?
I-
Rest assured, my compensation monthly payment is cash. I convert my cash into SoftBank shares, everything. I didn't know that. I am a shareholder like you. Just want to say. Rest assured. I'll make sure I put a leash on him. I don't know if it's 200 trillion or not, but I think I'm confident that we can get closer to that. We are in a good position, that's for sure. If it's too much, you will fail, so be careful not to fail. Thank you. Thank you for your assurance. I didn't know Yanai-san is a shareholder. He spent his compensation for SoftBank shares. I'm so happy now. I'm so excited. Maybe he can say no more to me.
In the rear rows, in column J and with the pink card, please raise your card. I shall be brief. 1,159 is my number. First, now, when it comes to Japanese companies, it is not usually the case, I would like to invite your comment on the following topic. AI revolution, which you were talking about, you mentioned that you would be committed to that goal. On the other hand, when it comes to intellectual property, it is getting out of the company, and the national wealth is thus being lost. From 15 years ago, I have been talking about this, any companies and the Japanese government as well, are not being committed to this issue. How do you view this situation? Japan is going to lose its power going forward into the future. How do you view this situation?
Mr. Son, you are now working, going beyond the national boundaries, so you do not care much about the loss of national wealth. Is that your position right now? Just one question. The investment in Sprint. I think the amount of sales is basically the same as SoftBank, the investment amount is basically the same. In connection with Huawei, that investment is not going to be recouped properly. Is there such a possibility? With regard to the national wealth loss, I don't know which specific cases you are referring to, but at least as the business leader and entrepreneur, I am fully devoted to the business of SoftBank and Group, and that is supposed to be my mission and my task. Only to that I'm going to be fully committed.
In my personal capacity, for example, that traditional scrolls or the writings of former revolutionaries, it is part of my personal hobby to collect them, those writings and scrolls. In the official capacity, I am only committed to the Vision Fund and the SoftBank Group and business, I will further be committed to that task alone. As for Sprint, Marcelo, do you have any comments on this?
As we've been very public, we believe that throughout, because of the merger, the Sprint investment will end up being a very good investment in the history of SoftBank because of the amount of the synergies that will be realized after the merger with Sprint and T-Mobile. We believe it's going to be another record investment for SoftBank.
Thank you. The last question. Motion? Okay, motion. Be nice to me, please. 834. On proposal one, I would vote against. About the dividend, shareholders would lose 20.315% for sure because of the tax. Rather than dividend, share buyback should be better. When the share price goes down, as low as JPY 6,800 at the end of last year, for example, you would want to repurchase shares. Dividend, you are still growing, so you would rather put dividend money into further growth. You want to go for another 300 years, paying out a dividend or managing our dividend on compound basis, I would rather give up a dividend, and I would want you to continue investing without a dividend. That's why I vote against the dividend for proposal one. I think completely opposite motion of the last motion.
Three against the vote on proposal one, whether we should take as planned or increase dividend or no dividend. Three choices now. We will take the vote later eventually. Is that okay to take that approach? We will ask you three choices later. Now that we answered to the last three questions, I'd like to move on to taking votes on matters for approval. Are there any objections? Thank you very much. Let's take a vote on proposal one, appropriation of surplus or dividend payment. Approve as planned, as proposed, or increase, or no. How should we take vote? The first, propose as is. All those in favor, please applaud. Thank you. Thank you very much. The proposal has received a majority of affirmative votes and has been approved in the form proposed.
With regards to motions, the motions were rejected because we received a majority of affirmative votes on the proposal one, and it's been approved in the form proposed. Thank you. I'll take a vote on proposal two, election of 12 board directors. All those in favor, please applaud. Thank you very much. The proposal has received a majority of affirmative votes and has been approved in the form proposed. I'll take a vote on proposal three, election of one audit and supervisory board member. All those in favor, please applaud. Thank you very much. The proposal has received a majority of affirmative votes and has been approved in the form proposed. Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's agenda, and I accordingly declare the 39th annual general meeting of shareholders SoftBank Group Corporation closed.
I'd like to invite newly elected Board Director, Yutaka Matsuo, up on the stage, so he will give you a few words. Dr. Matsuo, please. Thank you very much. My name is Matsuo, now Director of Board. In the University of Tokyo, I specialized in artificial intelligence and deep learning has been advancing quickly and in the areas of electricity, car engine, semiconductor, and Internet. I think we are in the stage of a huge evolution, biggest in 30 years. In fact, it's bigger evolution than Internet. I think artificial intelligence and deep learning would have an impact on more industries, and I have an opportunity to get involved in SoftBank Group, and I am looking forward to be a part of SoftBank Group's evolution and I hope that I can contribute to shareholders value and growth of shareholder value, and your continued support will be appreciated. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Dr. Matsuo, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Lastly, please allow me to show you another short video before you leave. Please remember the 30-year vision. Thank you very much for your attendance today.
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