FT: SoftBank seeks up to $100B from Gulf investors for a fund that buys companies and runs them with AI and robots
Partly confirmed
The takeaway
The Financial Times reported on Oct 9, 2026 that Masayoshi Son has held early talks with Gulf investors, including senior UAE figures, about raising up to $100B for a SoftBank fund.
Status
- Claim
Partly confirmed
- Our reporting
- Medium confidence
- Importance
- 2 of 5
- Last verified
- 9 October 2026
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Key facts
- Target: up to $100B; preliminary talks in recent weeks, including with senior figures in the UAE (FT via Bloomberg, Reuters/Yahoo Finance)
- Purpose: acquire companies and raise their efficiency with AI systems and robotics, including SoftBank’s robotics arm Roze
- SoftBank declined to comment; the $100B is a target, not money secured
- Context: SoftBank has completed a $30B investment in OpenAI (about $65B in total across the group) and sold $11.1B of high-yield bonds in September to fund it
- SoftBank shares fell 7.3% in Tokyo on Oct 9, as markets digested reports that OpenAI’s revenue run-rate was lower than earlier indicated
- Precedent: Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala backed the ~$100B first Vision Fund in 2017
What happened
On October 9, 2026, the FT reported that SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is sounding out Gulf investors, including senior UAE figures, about a vehicle of up to $100 billion. Unlike the Vision Funds, which bought minority stakes in startups, it would buy companies outright and run them more efficiently with AI and robotics. The talks are preliminary, and SoftBank declined to comment.
Why it matters
It would be a Vision Fund–sized bet on “AI roll-ups”: taking over ordinary businesses and automating them. It comes while SoftBank is heavily exposed to OpenAI and its shares are under pressure.
Sources
3 sources from 3 sites. Numbers match the chips in the text.
3 sources: 3 press
Press
- Financial Times: SoftBank seeks up to $100bn from Gulf investorsft.com, press
- Bloomberg: SoftBank seeks $100 billion from Gulf states for AI, FT saysbloomberg.com, press
- Yahoo Finance (Reuters): SoftBank seeks $100 billion from Gulf investors for AI expansionfinance.yahoo.com, press
Changes
- Filed