Interview with Vision Fund chief Rajeev Misra, who admits the fund made many investment mistakes and denies he smeared other high-ranking SoftBank executives
- Rajeev Misra, who leads SoftBank's Vision Fund, has largely been quiet as criticism has mounted.
Context & Ripple Effects
Misra had spent months as the silent center of a storm: Bloomberg's reporting on sycophancy, harassment, and recklessness inside the Vision Fund in December, followed by Business Insider's February account of accusations that he sabotaged fellow SoftBank executives — claims both he and SoftBank denied. This CNBC interview is his first sustained public response, and it doubles as damage control for the fund itself, whose investment record was already under fire.
First-order effects
- By conceding 'many investment mistakes' on camera, Misra hands Masayoshi Son and SoftBank a face-saving narrative for the fund's losses just as pressure builds over deals like WeWork.
- His explicit denial of smearing colleagues is aimed squarely at neutralizing the February sabotage story before it hardens into a governance scandal.
Second-order effects
- The interview does little to repair the strained Son–Misra dynamic that Bloomberg would document two months later, pushing Misra toward the sidelines rather than restoring his standing.
- A public admission from the fund's chief invites limited partners and SoftBank's board to treat personnel and portfolio problems as linked, accelerating the restructuring pressure that ends with Misra stepping back in 2022 while raising $6B+ for his own vehicle.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, mega-funds built around a single rainmaker prove structurally fragile: Misra's full exit from Vision Fund leadership in 2024 closes a decade in which one executive's judgment defined SoftBank's venture strategy.
- The episode feeds the broader critique — later crystallized when Son blamed a bubble he himself helped inflate through the fund — that concentrated, personality-driven capital distorts the VC market it touches.
The trend: SoftBank's Vision Fund is unwinding from a founder-deputy-led megafund into a more conventional structure, with Misra's public contrition marking the start of that retreat.