SoftBank seeks $100 billion from Gulf states for AI, FT says
Founder Masayoshi Son has held early talks with potential investors including those in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said.
SoftBank Group is aiming to raise up to $100 billion from Gulf investors to bolster its investments in artificial intelligence (AI), according to a report by the Financial Times (FT). The Japanese firm's founder, Masayoshi Son, has initiated conversations with potential investors, including those from the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper noted.
The proposed fund would involve acquiring companies and utilizing AI and robotics, including SoftBank's Roze arm, to enhance operations. This significant fundraising would enable further spending by the tech investment company, which has already invested over $65 billion in OpenAI prior to its public launch. Despite facing higher borrowing costs and delaying its own IPO, Son anticipates substantial returns from AI advancements, particularly in real-world object manipulation.
A SoftBank spokesperson declined to provide further comment, while SoftBank shares experienced a decline of up to 7.3% on Friday due to worries about the speed of OpenAI's revenue growth. Son has sought to position himself as a key player in the AI sector, previously securing billions of dollars globally to pursue his vision. However, he is now seeking additional capital from a region impacted by the Iran conflict, which has entered its eighth month and threatens economic contraction.
In 2017, Son obtained nearly $100 billion for the first Vision Fund, primarily from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. Although the fund has achieved success with companies like ByteDance, it has also faced high-profile failures such as WeWork. To assure investors, SoftBank plans to announce a $500 billion data center project in the U.S. alongside OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's state-backed AI investment firm MGX.
This endeavor has yet to yield significant progress. The fundraising would align with OpenAI's efforts to raise another $30 billion in a new financing round at a valuation of approximately $1.4 trillion, with talks ongoing with investment firms, including MGX. SoftBank also intends to take Roze public in the U.S. unit SB Energy, which is developing an 8.8-gigawatt data center facility in Ohio, and prepare for a Nasdaq listing.
Written by urgent.news from Japan Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
