Softbank and Saudi fund aim at robotics – Business Day (registration)

Riyadh The worlds largest private equity fund, backed by Japans Softbank Group and Saudi Arabias main sovereign wealth fund, says it has raised more than $93bn to invest in technology sectors such as artificial intelligence and robotics.

"The next stage of the information revolution is under way and building the businesses that will make this possible will require unprecedented large-scale, long-term investment," said the Softbank Vision Fund.

Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son, chairman of Softbank, a telecommunications and technology investment group, revealed plans for the fund in October 2016 and since then, it has obtained commitments from some of the worlds most deep-pocketed investors.

In addition to Softbank and Saudi Arabias Public Investment Fund, the funds investors include Abu Dhabis Mubadala Investment, which has committed $15bn, Apple, Qualcomm, Taiwans Foxconn Technology and Japans Sharp.

The new fund made its announcement during the visit of President Donald Trump to Riyadh and the signing of tens of billions of dollars worth of business deals between US and Saudi companies. Son was also in Riyadh on Saturday.

After meeting with Trump in December 2016, Son pledged $50bn of investment in the US that would create 50,000 jobs, a promise Trump claimed was a direct result of his election win.

The fund may also serve the interests of Saudi Arabia by helping Riyadh obtain access to foreign technology. The Saudi economy has been severely damaged by low oil prices and policy makers are trying to diversify into new industries.

The Public Investment Fund signalled an interest in the technology sector in 2016 by investing $3.5bn in Uber.

Saturdays statement did not say how much the Public Investment Fund had committed to the fund, but it has said before it would invest up to $45bn over five years. Softbank is investing $28bn.

The new fund said it would seek to buy minority and majority interests in private and public companies, from emerging businesses to established, multi-billion-dollar firms. It expects to obtain preferred access to long-term investment opportunities worth $100m or more.

Other sectors in which the fund may invest include communications infrastructure, computational biology and financial technology.

The fund aims for $100bn of committed capital and expects to complete its money-raising in six months, it added.

Reuters

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Softbank and Saudi fund aim at robotics - Business Day (registration)