SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to raise as much as $100bn from Gulf investors to expand his already vast bet on artificial intelligence, according to a report in the Financial Times, as questions mount over the scale of the Japanese conglomerate's exposure to the technology.
Son has held discussions in recent weeks with senior figures, including in the United Arab Emirates, over the possible fundraising, people familiar with the matter told the newspaper. The talks remain preliminary, and there is no guarantee they will lead to a deal.
A fund to buy and transform companies
As part of the plan, Son would use the money raised to set up a new investment vehicle that would acquire companies and then apply artificial intelligence and robotics to improve their operations, according to those briefed on the discussions. SoftBank's robotics and "physical AI" business, Roze, which Son hopes eventually to take public at a high valuation, is expected to play a central role in that strategy.
The fundraising would be the latest in a series of large AI wagers by the billionaire, who has already committed around $65bn to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, including a $30bn follow-on investment earlier this year that gave SoftBank a 13% stake in the company.
Growing investor unease
The push for fresh capital comes at an awkward moment for SoftBank. OpenAI has delayed its long-anticipated stock market listing, and investors have increasingly questioned whether Son can keep ploughing money into a technology he has repeatedly described as revolutionary without straining the group's finances.
SoftBank shares fell as much as 7.3% in Tokyo trading on Friday, as concerns grew over the pace of OpenAI's revenue growth. The company also raised $11.1bn through a high-yield bond sale in September to help fund its OpenAI investment, adding to worries about its borrowing costs as it deepens its exposure to the sector.
A SoftBank representative declined to comment on the reported Gulf talks, and Reuters said it had not been able to independently confirm the Financial Times account.
A familiar playbook
This would not be the first time Son has turned to the Gulf for enormous sums of capital. In 2017 he secured commitments of nearly $100bn for SoftBank's first Vision Fund, much of it from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. That fund went on to back some of the era's most prominent technology successes, including ByteDance, but also suffered high-profile failures such as WeWork, leaving investors with a mixed record to weigh as they consider backing Son once again.
Gulf sovereign wealth funds have continued to pour money into artificial intelligence in the years since, viewing the sector as central to diversifying their economies away from oil. But the latest approach comes at a moment when Gulf states themselves face economic headwinds, with the war in Iran now in its eighth month contributing to a more uncertain outlook across the region.
Son's long game
Son has sought for years to position himself at the centre of the global AI industry, repeatedly raising vast sums at home and abroad to fund his vision of a future transformed by artificial intelligence and robotics working in tandem. He has described the current moment as a once-in-a-generation technological shift comparable to the birth of the internet, and has argued that the scale of investment required demands bold, early commitments rather than caution.
Critics counter that SoftBank's concentration of risk in a small number of enormous, often unprofitable bets leaves the group dangerously exposed should the AI boom cool or OpenAI's path to profitability prove longer than expected. The delay to OpenAI's initial public offering, which many investors had hoped would help validate SoftBank's investment and provide a path to realising some of its paper gains, has only sharpened that debate.
For now, the talks with Gulf investors remain at an early stage, and it is unclear how quickly, if at all, they might progress towards firm commitments. But the scale of the sum under discussion underlines how central SoftBank, and Son personally, have become to the financing of the AI industry's continued expansion, and how much is riding on his ability to keep persuading the world's deepest-pocketed investors to follow him.
