Financial Times: SoftBank seeks up to $100 billion from Gulf investors for new AI investment push
SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to finance a new wave of artificial intelligence investments, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Son has held discussions in recent weeks with senior officials and other influential figures in the Gulf, including in the United Arab Emirates, about the potential fundraising, according to the report.
The proposed fund would be used to create an investment vehicle capable of acquiring companies and transforming their operations using AI and other advanced technologies. The fundraising is still at an early stage and there is no guarantee SoftBank will secure the full amount.
The effort comes as Son makes increasingly large bets on AI. SoftBank said last week that it had completed its $30 billion investment in OpenAI, fulfilling its commitment to the ChatGPT developer’s latest funding round. The Japanese group also raised $11.1 billion through a high-yield bond sale last month to bolster its financing capacity.
SoftBank has spent years building financial ties with the Gulf. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund committed $45 billion to the first $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund launched in 2017, while Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala committed $15 billion. Those partnerships helped give Son one of the world’s largest pools of private technology investment capital and provide a precedent for his latest fundraising effort in the region.
