SoftBank Targets $100 Billion From Gulf Sovereign Investors to Accelerate AI Push

SoftBank Group is seeking to raise as much as $100 billion from Middle Eastern investors to dramatically scale up its artificial intelligence ambitions. Founder Masayoshi Son has held initial talks with investors in the United Arab Emirates in recent weeks, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the move.

The proposed fund would acquire companies and deploy AI and robotics to improve their operations, a model that would extend SoftBank's existing investment philosophy into a more hands-on, operationally focused strategy. The fundraising target reflects the enormous capital requirements Son sees as necessary to compete at the frontier of AI development.

The approach comes weeks after SoftBank completed the final tranche of its cumulative $64.6 billion investment in OpenAI and as the company has been exploring additional financing routes, including a high-yield bond sale, to support its AI push. Gulf sovereign wealth funds including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala were anchor investors in SoftBank's original $93 billion Vision Fund 1 launched in 2017, making the region a natural target for Son's renewed fundraising effort.