Yossi Cohen upgrades his status at SoftBank and will become a strategic advisor at the investment fund
The former head of the Mossad, who served as the manager of Israeli operations, will expand his powers to the international arena and will work closely with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and senior management. He will focus on the fund's new areas of activity: financing and developing server farms for AI processing and cloud computing, and investing in chip companies.
Five years ago, former Mossad head Yossi Cohen joined the Japanese investment fund SoftBank as the manager of Israeli operations within the partnership established by the fund, named Vision Fund 2. Recently, as learned by Globes, Cohen was appointed by SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son to the position of strategic advisor, a more senior role that brings him closer to the top decision-making level in the organization and to Son himself.
Cohen will continue to operate in the Israeli market, but will focus more on the fund's new areas of activity: financing and developing server farms for AI processing and cloud computing, and investing in chip companies. According to senior figures in the high-tech industry, Cohen spends significant time in the USA and Europe meeting with industry leaders, marking his first steps in these new strategic areas.
Focus on cyber investments
During his tenure with the fund, Cohen dealt mainly with investments in cyber companies. He coordinated the Israeli market, identified new investment opportunities, and participated in deals with companies like Wiz, Claroty, and Cato Networks. All three proved to be successful bets for Vision Fund. For instance, the fund joined the investment in Wiz during a secondary round in 2025 at a valuation of 12 billion dollars, later selling its stake at a 32 billion dollar valuation, reaping a profit of several hundred million shekels.
In late 2021, Cohen led a 150 million dollar investment in Claroty, a company specializing in cyber protection for industrial plants and physical infrastructure, at a valuation of approximately 2 billion dollars. Although SoftBank has not increased its investment in recent years, Claroty's value has doubled to 4 billion dollars. Similarly, the investment in Shlomo Kramer's Cato Networks saw its value rise from 3 billion dollars in 2023 to 4.8 billion last year.
Masayoshi Son's strategic shift
Cohen's promotion follows the transformation of Vision Fund, SoftBank's subsidiary. When Cohen joined five years ago, he operated under the British branch managed by former Deutsche Bank executives. Following the high-tech crisis of 2022–2023, leadership including CEO Rajeev Misra left the branch, and Cohen transitioned to work under the American branch of the Vision Fund.
In recent years, Masayoshi Son has shifted the company's investment focus from the classic venture capital model of Vision Fund to direct investments by SoftBank in server farms, AI infrastructure, and capital injections into giants like OpenAI, ARM, and Intel. While many managers left the Vision Fund, those remaining are focused on managing existing assets, including TikTok operator ByteDance and OpenAI.
Value growth driven by OpenAI and TikTok
The IPO of ARM, still under SoftBank's control, is considered one of the best chip IPOs in recent years, with its stock rising 400% in two years. Earlier this month, SoftBank reported an 8.2 billion dollar profit from Intel shares, bringing the fund's total profit to 2.2 billion dollars in the second quarter of 2026. SoftBank's investment in OpenAI is currently valued at nearly 80 billion dollars, following a 34.6 billion dollar investment. To fund these moves, SoftBank raised a 40 billion dollar bridge loan and sold shares in T-Mobile and Nvidia.
Neither Yossi Cohen nor SoftBank provided a comment regarding the news.
