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He leads one of the most talked-about companies in the world - an investment powerhouse that has backed some of the globe's most celebrated tech businesses.

But Masayoshi Son, founder and CEO of SoftBank, the giant Japanese investor famous for backing the likes of Uber, Alibaba and Slack, has just suffered a rare bad day at the office.

Mr Son, who founded SoftBank in 1981 and built it into the world's most influential tech investor, had to issue a rare apology after the company reported its first quarterly loss in 14 years.

As ever, with SoftBank, the numbers are vast.

SoftBank reported an operating loss of ¥704bn (£5bn) for the three months to the end of September, down from an operating profit of ¥706bn during the same period last year.

That was chiefly due to an operating loss of ¥970bn (£6.9bn) during the period at the Vision Fund, the colossal Saudi Arabia-backed investment vehicle, through which SoftBank has backed companies like Uber.

And that in turn reflected a thumping $3.4bn write-down in the value of the Vision Fund's investment in WeWork, the shared office space provider forced to pull plans for a stock market flotation last month, amid growing scepticism over the way it was being run.

After the flotation was cancelled, SoftBank was forced to rescue the company with a $10bn bail-out package.

WeWork, which was valued at $47bn in its most recent funding round in January, was left with a valuation of just $7.8bn following the rescue.

Speaking to reporters in Japan today, Mr Son, who is famous for his ebullient approach, issued a lengthy apology for the loss.

Standing in front of a presentation slide which spelled out the words "red ink", Mr Son said: "It's probably the first time that we incurred such a large loss in three months, since we started business.

"It wasn't an ordinary typhoon but a perfect storm.

"I made a bad investment decision and I am deeply remorseful. My own investment judgement was really bad. I regret it in many ways. I am reflecting deeply on that.

"In the case of WeWork, I made a mistake. I won't make any excuses. It was a very harsh lesson."

Mr Son spent much of the presentation criticising Adam Neumann, WeWork's founder, who was forced out of the company but who in the process walked away with a payoff of $1.7bn.

The SoftBank founder added: "I overestimated Adam's good side…[and with] his negative side, in many cases, I turned a blind eye, especially when it comes to governance."

Mr Son insisted, however, that there would be no change in SoftBank's strategy or approach and said that he expected, over time, that WeWork would still turn out to be a good company.

He said that the recent $10bn bailout of WeWork was not a rescue but a chance to build a bigger stake in the business and reduce the average cost of the Vision Fund's investment in the company in the process.

He went on: "We may not be able to make a big gain, but at least we may be able to get back our investment."

Mr Son said he had also learned a valuable lesson and would be insisting in future on higher standards of corporate governance at start-ups and tech companies where the founder, as in the case of Mr Neumann, had previously been over-dominant.

Yet WeWork has not been the only blemish on the record of SoftBank, which sprang to prominence in Britain in 2016 with its blockbuster takeover - shortly after the EU referendum - of ARM Holdings, the chip designer and, at the time, the UK's largest quoted tech company.

The value of the Vision Fund's investments in other tech companies also fell during the quarter, including the workplace messaging company Slack and the ride-hailing app Uber, whose shares fell to an all-time low, ahead of the expiry on Wednesday of a lock-up that prevented employees from selling shares until today.

They fell by a further 4% this afternoon.

And Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing app, which at $11.8bn is the Vision Fund's biggest single investment, is said to be losing money on every fare booked, with the Wall Street Journal reporting recently that the company is in need of a cash injection.

Mr Son insisted today, however, that many of the other companies SoftBank had backed had done well.

He pointed out that, during the period, 37 of the Vision Fund's investments had increased in value while only 22 had fallen.

Pointing out that the Vision Fund's shareholding in Slack was still worth five times what SoftBank had paid for it, Mr Son said that across the entire Vision Fund, its cumulative investments had finished the quarter worth $11bn more than they began it.

The big question now is whether Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, the two key supporters of the Vision Fund, will get behind the second Vision Fund planned by Mr Son.

Nearly half of the first Vision Fund's money came from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund and backing from the pair will be crucial if the new fund is to have sufficient momentum.

The chances are that they will.

Mr Son showed loyalty to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman when, this time last year, he attended the Kingdom's investment conference, nicknamed 'Davos in the Desert', when scores of western business leaders and financiers were staying away after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

His loyalty is now likely to be repaid and Mr Son was insisting today that the new fund will "launch on schedule".

Even though the Saudis and Abu Dhabi have yet to commit, the Vision Fund 2 already has substantial financial firepower, with Microsoft, Apple and Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics manufacturer, having committed resources, along with Kazakhstan's sovereign wealth funds, a number of Japanese investment banks and Softbank itself, which has pumped in some $38bn.

That said, the WeWork debacle means that undoubtedly some of the gloss has been stripped away from the Vision Fund, which is headquartered in London's Mayfair. Investors will probably be forgiving of one bad quarter.

But Softbank cannot afford too many more.