Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son says he and Alibaba's Jack Ma send each other drawings to keep in touch

• Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son send each other drawings to keep in touch.
• Their friendship stretches back years, and both have served on the board of each other's companies.
• Son said they've kept in contact amid Ma's Ant Group IPO bust and subsequent rumored disappearance.

Alibaba founder Jack Ma and Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son send each other drawings as a way to keep in touch, Son said on an $4on Monday.

Son said they've kept tabs on each other as $4 in recent months.

He said their correspondence doesn't always involve business - Ma "likes to draw" and has sent Son "many drawings," the Softbank CEO said on the call. He said he responds to them with some bedtime artwork.

"Thirty minutes or so, before I go to bed, I draw some drawings ...[and] show him," Son said.

Ma and Son have kept a tight friendship over the years, $4 as "my friend and comrade in my life." He also said he and Ma would meet "face-to-face every month to have dinner" before the COVID-19 pandemic set in.

Both have served on the board of each other's companies. Ma was a director at the Japanese investing giant for 13 years until $4

Son $4 following Ma's departure. "It's not that there were disagreements," Son said in a general shareholder's meeting. "It is just a happy ending."

Softbank poured $20 million into Alibaba in 2000, an investment that reaped major rewards for the firm. Softbank is Alibaba's largest shareholder, $4 in the company, and $4 of that in June.

Ma has had a tumultuous few months following the bust of his company $4 After publicly scoffing at China's banking rules, officials summoned Ma to a regulatory meeting and introduced new micro-lending rules that disqualified Ant for a dual listing. China ended up pulling the IPO altogether.

The country has since ordered Ant to $4 and the fintech firm is currently w$4

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China's tech companies at large have seen a tighter crackdown since last fall. $4 that could prevent internet companies from holding too much market power. The regulations were designed to set stricter anti-competitive behavior guidelines.

China announced in December that it was $4 over alleged monopolistic business practices.