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Masa Son reportedly won’t speak at Saudi conference

Saudi Arabia’s investment conference opened today, with another big-name speaker taken off its agenda: Masayoshi Son of SoftBank has withdrawn from the conference, the NYT reports.

Mr. Son had been one of few big-name speakers still scheduled to attend the Future Investment Initiative event, after numerous high-profile C.E.O.s and politicians canceled amid concerns over the death of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Mr. Son is in a difficult position. The Saudis are his biggest backers, providing $45 billion to the nearly $100 billion Vision Fund that is a big part of SoftBank’s future. But standing by them could alienate many of the start-ups that the Vision Fund is meant to invest in.

It appears that after weeks of internal deliberations, Mr. Son decided that snubbing the Saudis was the best course of action. An executive from the Vision Fund spoke at the conference as scheduled, the WSJ reports.