At a recent meeting, SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son reportedly told his top executives to slow the pace of investments as the world’s biggest tech investor looks to raise cash. (Financial Times)

Talking point: SoftBank’s investments lost between US$20 billion and US$30 billion in value in the last quarter, as central banks signalled coming interest-rate hikes and China issued new rules for tech giants that cratered their stock prices overseas. To stem the losses, SoftBank is looking to raise cash and examining assets that could be sold off, the Financial Times reports. SoftBank’s shares have fallen more than 40 per cent in the last year; meanwhile, since 2020, its net debt has risen from 8.8 per cent of the value of its holdings to 21.6 per cent. Through its second Vision Fund, which failed to raise outside capital, the Japanese company has backed a number of Canadian startups in recent months, including Clearco, Deep Genomics and Ventus Therapeutics.