SoftBank Seeks Up to $100B From Gulf for AI Acquisition Fund
TL;DR
- SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is sounding out Gulf investors for up to $100 billion to seed a fund that would buy companies and retool them with AI.
- Son has held discussions in recent weeks with senior figures including in the UAE, though reporting notes there is no guarantee of a deal.
- The pitch follows SoftBank's completed $30 billion OpenAI investment and its $11.1 billion bond sale last month, described as the largest high-yield corporate bond sale globally.
SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is sounding out Gulf investors for up to $100 billion to buy companies outright and retool them with AI.
The Financial Times reported that Son has held discussions in recent weeks with senior figures, including in the United Arab Emirates. The money would seed a new fund that would "acquire companies and improve their operations using AI and other advanced technologies," per the FT's description, with Roze, SoftBank's robotics and physical AI business, expected to play a key role.
There is no guarantee the discussions will lead to a deal.
The pitch lands on top of a very recent spending run. SoftBank said last week that it had completed a $30 billion investment in OpenAI as part of its commitment to the ChatGPT maker's last fundraising round. The month before, the company raised $11.1 billion in what wire coverage summarizing the FT called the largest high-yield corporate bond sale globally, earmarked for the OpenAI bet. The 403 OpenAI-tagged stories we have logged in the last 90 days include SoftBank-tied financing moves at nearly every scale.
SoftBank has not publicly confirmed the plan. The $100 billion is an upper target, not a term sheet.
Originally reported by ft.com
Read the original article →Original headline: SoftBank Seeks Up to $100B From Gulf Investors for New AI-Driven Buyout Fund