SoftBank Prepares A New $108 Billion Investment For AI-Based Vision Fund 2

This Friday, SoftBank announced its plans of creating Vision Fund 2, a second installment of the company’s USD 100 billion investment in technological advancements that it believes will redefine future. Vision Fund, which came up in 2017, had SoftBank’s money invested in many big names including the likes of ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owners, Uber, Slack, and WeWork. Vision Fund 2 will have USD 38 billion being invested by SoftBank itself while the red of the expected USD 108 billion expected to flow in from investors.

The list of more expected investors does have quite a few popular names in it like that of tech giants, Foxconn, Microsoft, and Apple. A big question that was left unanswered by Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of SoftBank, was whether Saudi Arabia will have a share in the investments or not. For the first term of Vision Fund, Saudi government had invested USD 45 billion. However, following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the bond took a hit. Masayoshi Son did confirm that he won’t cut ties with the middle eastern giants, but also did not give out any additional comments on their involvement in Vision Fund 2. Vision Fund had made a total of 69 investments and had drawn a 29 per cent overall return on those investments. Despite that, a big question mark still looms large on whether or not Vision Fund 2 will find able investors or not.

Talking of investments in technology, Silicon Valley giant, Google, is planning to make an investment worth USD 50 million in Housing Trust Silicon Valley’s TECH Fund. The TECH Fund helps bring online affordable housing facilities across Silicon Valley. It has helped shape 2,255 homes overall across a total of 20 developments in Silicon Valley. This includes everything from buying land to constructing homes on it.