Softbank made an interesting playbook. They made a bet that given their fund size (magnitude order larger then VC funding at the time) they could find large sc

Softbank made an interesting playbook. They made a bet that given their fund size (magnitude order larger then VC funding at the time) they could find large scale opportunities fund those companies and outlast longer and out muscle the competition based largely on size of capital alone. I.e. hold on to losses before the competitors ran out of gas and then take market share. As a result competition has had to up the amount of funding sizes so that they can compete with Softbank investments or risk not being able to keep marketshare. Also creates some really perverse incentives in that you can sustain an unsustainable business model much longer driving out other businesses/competition at the same time then VC traditional could. It is a pretty big bet and has lots of capital in the mix - founder of Softbank has a history of high risk bets (not always going well either I would add).