Alok Sama stands as a distinguished Finance & Banking speaker, blending global capital markets veteranship with high-stakes technology deals. A Wharton MBA graduate, his illustrious career includes roles as Senior Managing Director at Morgan Stanley and—and most notably—President and CFO of SoftBank Group International, where he orchestrated landmark transactions such as the $59 billion Sprint–T-Mobile merger and the $34 billion acquisition of Arm Holdings.
Today, as a best-selling author of The Money Trap: Grand Fortunes & Lost Illusions inside the Tech Bubble, Alok draws from a rare vantage point atop both financial institutions and tech titans. His experiences—from divesting Alibaba holdings to steering SoftBank’s capital strategy—infuse his storytelling with depth, authority, and clear business relevance.
In this exclusive interview with The Motivational Speakers Agency, Alok offers insights for leaders and investors on the evolving role of artificial intelligence in corporate finance, the hard truths behind the tech boom, and the enduring value of strategic leadership in turbulent markets.
Question 1. Your new book, The Money Trap, has already been described by leading outlets as both entertaining and provocative. What compelled you to write it, and what perspective do you hope readers will take away from your account of working alongside Masayoshi Son?
Alok Sama: “Generally yeah the book is uh my first obviously hopefully not my last. The book is a… it’s a memoir and it’s a Bor out of desire to share my experiences both professional and personal with a broad audience. Uh it’s not just a story of my life. I think that gets… those types of memoirs get a tad boring.
“Instead, the book focuses on a slice of life, a five-year period when I worked alongside one of the most consequential technology investors of all time and that’s Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, which is uh um at one point had the largest technology fund in the world, the Vision Fund, hundred billion dollar fund.
“The book has um been described by The Wall Street Journal as “raffishly funny”. It’s intended to be entertaining. The Economist had a very interesting take on the book; they described it as a Rorschach test for readers and I like that, because it’s a book that is not binary as many memoirs or non-fiction books tend to be.
“The reader, what you take away from the book, tells you a lot about yourself. So The Economist, for example, makes the point that depending on your mindset you might see it as a book that glorifies the culture of deal-making, or alternatively you could see it as an exposé of the vacuousness of the mindless pursuit of money.
“And there’s plenty in the book to support both views. So that’s really a summary of the book, and I’ve been overwhelmed by the reception and it’s just really been fantastic to engage with people all over the world on some of the issues that come up.”
Question 2. Looking ahead, how do you assess the future of the global technology sector — and in particular, do you believe artificial intelligence will ultimately redefine competitive advantage for businesses across industries?
Alok Sama: “Yeah, I think the answer to that question is in the second half of the question, which is I do think that AI will be a game changer. Indeed, it already is a game changer and that probably is the future of the tech industry, to the degree one can predict the tech industry at all.
“If you look at AI, the action right now is at the enterprise level. And by the way, the AI phenomena is not just a game changer for the technology industry, it’s a game changer for businesses generally, and how well a business integrates AI into its entire value chain will become a key determinant of profitability and competitive advantage.
“The simplest way to think about AI at the enterprise level is as a productivity tool. The more robotic functions: call centre workers, voting, parallel research, analytics of all kind – those are the most easily disruptive. But over time you will see new businesses evolve.
“The jury’s still out in terms of how AI works at the individual level. So far, it’s been for amusement – you know, people coming up with AI-generated photographs of themselves, I’ve played with those sorts of things – but we haven’t seen the same types of business models that we did with Web 2.0, Uber for example. But over time that will happen and will be very exciting.
“So the excitement right now, to come back to a central question in terms of technology investing, arguably an overhype is in and around AI. It’s around not just the large language models like OpenAI, but around applications, and it will increasingly become clear what those applications are from an investment perspective.”
Question 3. When addressing audiences worldwide, what core message do you want executives and investors to leave with, and how do you approach balancing personal anecdotes with broader lessons on money, leadership and decision-making?
Alok Sama: “So I tend to think of speeches or lectures as a little bit patronising. So my approach, which is the case with my book too, is to share my experiences, to share anecdotes, and equally invite an audience to share their experiences. And in the process of sharing our respective stories, hopefully we all learn from each other.
“So I’m a big fan of engagement, of interactive sessions as opposed to lecturing. And I do hope that in the course of these interactions people learn something about the investment business, the technology investment business in particular. With Masayoshi Son, you know, kind of the idealism with which he approaches the investment business – which is something I find very attractive – but at some level the investing business has become fairly crash and commercial.
“So you know, kind of diving into that aspect of it, the linkages, philosophical themes like the linkages between money and happiness, stages of life – those are the types of things I love to explore in sessions with groups.”
This exclusive interview with Alok Sama was conducted by Mark Matthews of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
