SoftBank seeks $100 billion from Gulf states for AI

SoftBank Group Corp. seeks to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to help it amp up its bets on AI, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

Founder Masayoshi Son has held early talks with potential investors including those in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said. The proposed fund would buy companies and use AI and machines, including from SoftBank’s robotics arm Roze, to improve operations, the FT said.

Fundraising of that scale would fuel more spending by the tech investment firm, which has invested almost $65 billion in OpenAI ahead of the AI lab’s public debut. The Japanese company is grappling with growing borrowing costs, while the ChatGPT-developer has pushed back its initial public offering. Still, Son has forecast big investment returns from AI advances, including in the realm of machines that manipulate real-world objects.


A SoftBank representative declined to comment. SoftBank shares dropped as much as 7.3% in Tokyo on Friday, weighed by concerns over the pace of OpenAI’s revenue growth.

The SoftBank chief has sought to position himself at the center of the AI industry, and for years had been able to raise billions of dollars at home and abroad to fulfill his vision.

But Son is now trying to get more capital from a region grappling with the threat of economic contraction from the Iran war, now entering its eighth month. In 2017, the entrepreneur obtained commitments of nearly $100 billion for the first Vision Fund, much of which came from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala. That first vehicle’s had a mixed record since, backing winners such as ByteDance Ltd. but also high-profile flameouts like WeWork.

SoftBank would need to assure investors it can deliver on promises. In 2025, the company announced a $500 billion data center project in the US in partnership with OpenAI, Oracle Corp. and Abu Dhabi’s state-backed artificial intelligence investment firm MGX. That endeavor has yet to yield material progress.

Any fundraising would coincide with OpenAI’s efforts to raise another $30 billion in a new financing at a valuation of around $1.4 trillion. The firm is in talks with investment funds including MGX to help anchor the round.

SoftBank also plans to take Roze public in the US. Unit SB Energy, which is tasked with building an 8.8-gigawatt data center facility in Ohio, is also preparing to list on the Nasdaq.