The Pulse
SoftBank Seeks Up to $100 Billion for a Gulf-Backed AI Fund
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking up to $100 billion from Gulf investors for a fund that would acquire companies and use AI to improve their operations. The reported talks come as SoftBank expands its OpenAI investment and faces que
AI.info Team · Written with AI ·
A $100 billion target, not a closed fund
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors for a new artificial-intelligence investment fund, the Financial Times reported on Friday, October 9. Son has held discussions in recent weeks with senior figures, including in the United Arab Emirates, according to people familiar with the matter. The proposed amount is a fundraising target, not a confirmed commitment.
The fund would buy companies and apply AI and other advanced technology to improve their operations, the FT reported. That plan would put SoftBank in the position of backing companies and trying to change how they work, rather than simply funding AI developers. The report did not identify specific prospective investors or describe a timetable, fund structure or agreed terms.
SoftBank’s growing OpenAI exposure
The fundraising effort would add to an already large AI commitment. The FT puts SoftBank’s investment in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, at $65 billion. Reuters reported that SoftBank completed a $30 billion investment in OpenAI the previous week, part of the company’s participation in the startup’s latest financing.
Those figures describe different measures: the FT’s $65 billion refers to SoftBank’s broader investment in OpenAI, while Reuters’ $30 billion refers to a completed investment tied to the latest fundraising round. SoftBank has also been raising money through debt. Reuters reported that the company raised $11.1 billion in a high-yield bond sale in September, which it said was the largest such corporate sale globally.
OpenAI’s delayed listing adds pressure
The FT links Son’s search for more capital to concern about SoftBank’s ability to keep financing its AI plans. Its report points to a delay in OpenAI’s long-anticipated initial public offering and investor reassessment of the scale of SoftBank’s exposure. In its own newsroom briefing on the story, the FT said it was getting harder for SoftBank to add debt to its balance sheet.
A delayed listing does not establish that SoftBank cannot fund its commitments, but it could affect expectations around when investors might see a public-market exit from OpenAI. The FT also reported that SoftBank declined to comment on the fundraising discussions. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the FT’s report and that SoftBank did not respond to its request for comment.
Gulf capital has backed SoftBank before
The region has a precedent as a source of large-scale backing for Son’s investment strategy. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala were among the investors in SoftBank’s first Vision Fund, launched in 2017 with a target of $100 billion. Their earlier participation does not indicate that either fund will invest in the newly proposed vehicle.
For now, the reported talks leave the central questions unanswered: whether Gulf investors will commit capital, how much the fund might ultimately raise and which companies it would seek to acquire. SoftBank’s reported target is up to $100 billion; the FT has not reported that the money is secured.
Read the Financial Times report and the FT News Briefing transcript.