(本文选自《经济学人》20201017期)
背景介绍：
2017年，日本软银集团创始人孙正义带着改变世界的梦想，一手牵头创立了资金规模高达1000亿美元的愿景基金，由此创造了迄今为止规模最大的科技投资基金。如今，3年过去了，愿景基金已经投资了近百个项目，孙正义最初的愿景实现了吗？
The lessons from the Vision Fund
Son Masayoshi has shown that the future of technology lies as much in Asia as in Silicon Valley
“If I’m going to do a fund it has to be big enough to disrupt the whole technology world.” So declared Son Masayoshi four years ago, on a trip to the Middle East to drum up cash for a new investment vehicle to take on Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists (VCs). His Vision Fund eventually raised $98.6bn and bought stakes in some of the world’s most exciting companies, including ByteDance and Uber.
“如果我要做一支基金，那么它必须要大到足以颠覆整个科技界。”四年前，孙正义在一次中东之行中这样说道，他此行的目的是为一个新的投资工具筹集资金，以便与硅谷的风险投资家相抗衡。他所创立的愿景基金最终筹集到资金986亿美元，并投资了包括字节跳动和优步在内的一些全球最具活力的公司。
Yet as we explain this week, Mr Son’s mission has so far had mixed results. Performance has been
soggy
, despite a boom in tech stocks, as the strategy of pouring money into private firms has at times become rather like spoiling
perpetual
adolescents. Instead, the Vision Fund’s most striking legacy may be that it has marked the start of a new era in which American capital and startups no longer call all the shots.
然而，正如我们本周所述，孙正义的愿景只取得了一个喜忧参半的结果。尽管科技股潜力无限，但其在股市中的表现却持续走低，这是因为向私人企业注入资金的策略有时就像是对一个永远长不大的孩子的溺爱。但不管怎样，愿景基金最引人注目的成就或许是，它标志着一个新时代的到来，在这个新的时代，美国资本和初创公司不再能做到一手遮天了。
For decades an elite of VC funds in San Francisco have spotted promising startups and nurtured them to adulthood, in the form of a stockmarket listing or a takeover. The Vision Fund played by different rules. It dragged VC out of its Californian cul-de-sac.
几十年来，旧金山一批优质的风投基金发现了前途无量的初创公司，并以上市或收购的方式使其走向成熟。愿景基金则有着不同的玩法。它将风险投资从加州的死胡同里拽了出来。
Its anchor investor was a Saudi Arabian sovereign-wealth fund, it was controlled from Tokyo and it paid as much attention to Asia’s tech scene as to America’s. It viewed capital as a weapon in a winner-takes-all struggle. By channelling vast sums to startups you could speed up time and help them reach critical mass more quickly while intimidating their rivals.
愿景基金的主要投资方是沙特阿拉伯的主权财富基金，但却是在东京运作，并且它同等关注于亚洲和美国的科技领域。它将资本视为赢者通吃式斗争中的一种武器。通过向初创公司注入大量资金，你就能让时间加速，使它们迅速发展壮大，从而击败竞争对手。
The Vision Fund also tried to
reinvent
governance. It let firms stay in private hands for longer, as part of its global family of startups which could share ideas and co-operate or fight it out—the fund has bought stakes in 92 firms, some of which compete with each other.
愿景基金还试图重塑公司治理模式。它让公司能够以私营模式维持更长时间，而这些公司作为其初创公司大家庭的一员，能够分享创意、相互合作或竞争——愿景基金现已持有92家公司的股份，其中一些公司相互之间存在竞争。
How has the experiment fared? Having invested $82.6bn, the Vision Fund has so far made net gains of $8bn. Mr Son’s optimism about tech was spot-on but his fund has lagged far behind the NASDAQ tech index, which has risen by 99% since May 2017, when the fund was officially launched.
这场实验进展如何？到目前为止，愿景基金已经投出了826亿美元，净收益达80亿美元。孙正义看好科技股的眼光没错，但愿景基金却远远落后于纳斯达克科技指数。自2017年5月愿景基金正式创立以来，纳斯达克科技指数已经上涨99%。
That underperformance reflects flaws in its strategy. Throwing cash at firms raised valuations and encouraged entrepreneurs to fight damaging price wars, from ride-sharing to food-delivery. Mr Son’s freewheeling view of governance was a mistake.
这一欠佳的表现反映了其战略上的缺陷。从网约车到外卖行业，愿景基金向公司注入大量资金，以提高其估值，并鼓励创业者大打价格战。孙正义放任自流式的企业治理观念显然是错误的。
Without the scrutiny of public markets,
egotistical
founders went astray, most obviously at WeWork, a property firm. Bad bets had cost the Vision Fund $14.5bn by June this year. It proved hard to get the
portfolio
of firms to co-operate, or merge, especially given geopolitical tensions.
在缺乏公开市场监督的情况下，心浮气盛的创始人难免会误入歧途，最典型的例子就是房地产企业 WeWork。截至今年6月，下错了注的愿景基金因已经亏损了145亿美元。事实证明，想要让它所投资的众多企业合作或合并是非常困难的，尤其是在地缘政治紧张的情况下。
The tech industry is now rushing in a different direction, taking firms public so they can raise capital from diverse sources and face the
discipline
of institutional investors. Of the top 30 “unicorns”—private tech firms worth over $1bn—in 2018, over half have listed or are about to, including Ant Group and Airbnb.
如今，科技行业正朝着另一个方向发展，即推动公司上市，这样一来便可从不同渠道筹集资金，并接受机构投资者的约束。在2018年市值超过10亿美元的30家“独角兽公司”中，超过半数已经或即将上市，其中包括蚂蚁集团和爱彼迎。
Many have used alternative techniques to go public, such as direct listings, which avoid the
clunky
initial-public-offering process. Mr Son’s fund will benefit as its firms leap into the public market at high valuations. But his second fund, Vision Fund 2, reflects a chastened reality, with only $3bn of assets and 13 investments so far, many of them small.
许多公司采用了其他上市方式（例如直接上市），从而避开了首次公开募股的繁琐过程。随着其投资的公司以高估值进入到公开市场，孙正义的愿景基金将从中获益。但他的第二支基金（愿景基金2号）却反映了一个残酷的现实，该基金迄今只筹集到30亿美元的资金，仅投资了13个项目，并且其中许多都是小规模投资。
Although it has failed to turn tech investing into
alchemy
, the Vision Fund has shown that the VC establishment does not have a monopoly in dealmaking—so far this year 82% of VC deals in America have involved non-traditional investors, including sovereign-wealth funds and companies.
尽管愿景基金未能将科技投资化作炼金术，但它至少证明了风投机构在交易中不具垄断地位——今年以来，美国82%的风投交易涉及包括主权财富基金和公司的非传统投资者。
And most important, by taking a global view and placing giant bets in India, South-East Asia and China, it has underlined that the future of technology lies as much in Asia as on America’s west coast. Like many startups, the Vision Fund has helped change the world—just not in the way it originally expected to.
最重要的是，愿景基金通过放眼全球，在印度、东南亚和中国押下重注，从而凸显了科技的未来不仅在美国西海岸，也同样在亚洲。就像许多初创公司一样，愿景基金真的改变了世界——只不过并非以最初设想的方式。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
本文翻译：Vinnie
校核：Vinnie
编辑：Vinnie
从投资办公空间共享初创公司 WeWork 的失败，到多位高管的离职，愿景基金陷入了巨大的危机中。有人说，孙正义的愿景基金最终还是失败了。但从另一个角度来看，愿景基金至少证明了，科技创新的未来不仅在美国西海岸的硅谷，也同样在亚洲。孙正义实现了其改变世界的愿景，只不过并非以最初设想的方式。
重难点词汇：
soggy
[ˈsɑːɡi] adj. 浸水的；透湿的
perpetual
[pərˈpetʃuəl] adj. 永久的；不断的
