Funding
SoftBank comes back to the Gulf for $100 billion
Masayoshi Son is courting Gulf investors for a new AI fund of up to $100 billion, according to the FT and Reuters.
SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son is seeking to raise up to $100 billion from Gulf investors to finance a new wave of AI investments, the Financial Times reported Thursday, with Reuters corroborating the talks.
The proposed fund would rank among the largest ever raised and marks Son's second swing at Gulf money after the original Vision Fund era. It comes as SoftBank remains the central backer of large-scale AI infrastructure buildouts in the United States.
The raise is a bet that the current capital cycle holds: US venture funding hit record highs in the first half of 2026, with the overwhelming share flowing to AI companies.