Softbank is not making 'goofy' investments along the lines of Google's 'loon' projects, like putting Wifi in air balloons. They are making 'real' investments i

Softbank is not making 'goofy' investments along the lines of Google's 'loon' projects, like putting Wifi in air balloons. They are making 'real' investments in late stage companies with actual business models, or things that have obvious potential upsides. Softbank is basically where companies go for D and E rounds instead of going public. So there is some risk, but way less risk than left-field, early stage investments. Their 'real estate' investment is in WeWork, which probably will make them a lot of money as long as interest rates don't flinch higher, and as long as there is no real-estate crash. Sprint, ARM, Yahoo, Uber, Slack - these are not 'crazy' investments, especially depending on price. Yahoo might actually have some 'decent fundamentals' on some level, and be worth something at some price. They have a gigantic audience, and some small changes might make them be profitable at some level, and they could very well be worth something, at some price. It's a cross between classic private equity and late stage venture capital, all of their investments make sense in that context.