SoftBank's Son Reportedly Seeks Up to $100bn From Gulf Investors for New AI Buyout Fund

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has held talks with senior figures in the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf investors about raising as much as $100 billion for a new artificial intelligence investment vehicle, according to a Financial Times report cited by Yahoo Finance and European Business Magazine. Unlike SoftBank's existing Vision Funds, which back early-stage start-ups, the proposed fund would acquire established companies and use AI and other advanced technologies to overhaul their operations, the reporting says, effectively applying a private-equity-style strategy with an AI overlay.

What the reported plan involves

SoftBank's robotics and physical AI business, Roze, is expected to play a key role in the strategy, according to the Financial Times reporting relayed by Yahoo Finance. European Business Magazine's account suggests the fund would target profitable mid-sized firms in manufacturing, logistics and financial services, often family-owned, and notes Europe could be a likely hunting ground given the euro's position near a 17-month low, which makes such businesses cheaper to buyers holding dollars. SoftBank has not commented on the fundraising plan, European Business Magazine reports.

The scale being discussed echoes 2017, when Son raised close to $100 billion for the first Vision Fund, mostly from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala. That fund backed Uber and Arm but also made what European Business Magazine calls one of the most expensive mistakes in modern venture capital, WeWork. No Gulf institution has been reported as confirming or denying participation in the new vehicle.

Reaction: Musk calls it a fool's errand

Elon Musk responded to a post about the planned fundraise on X, writing, "Only a fool would give them money," according to Yahoo Finance's reporting on the exchange.

SoftBank's existing financing strain

The reported Gulf approach comes as SoftBank has been stretching its balance sheet to fund existing AI commitments. European Business Magazine reports the company has increased a margin loan secured on its shares in Arm, the Cambridge chip designer, to about $25 billion, leaving Britain's most valuable tech company partly pledged as collateral; Startup Fortune describes that as a tripling of the loan this year. A separate attempt to borrow against SoftBank's OpenAI stake reportedly failed because lenders were unwilling to accept shares in a private company that does not publish full accounts, according to both European Business Magazine and Startup Fortune. European Business Magazine also reports that SoftBank's share price has fallen by close to half since early June and that the cost of insuring its debt against default has risen sharply; no same-day market reaction to the Financial Times report is documented in the available reporting.

Accounts of a related bridge facility diverge. European Business Magazine states SoftBank "has a $40bn bridge loan due in March 2027." SoftBank's own October 1 disclosure, however, says all borrowings under a bridge facility agreement dated March 27, 2026, with a total facility of $40 billion, have been repaid, and that the remaining $10 billion of undrawn capacity was cancelled effective September 30, 2026. Readers should note these two accounts are not reconciled in the available reporting.

European Business Magazine also reports that to help fund its commitments, SoftBank sold $11.1 billion of high-yield bonds in the month before that report, which the publication describes as the largest junk bond sale anywhere this year.

Asset sales and OpenAI exposure

SoftBank has sold other holdings to help fund its AI push. CNBC reported that in October the company sold its entire stake in Nvidia for $5.83 billion, and that between June and December it sold $12.73 billion worth of T-Mobile stock. On those two reported figures, the Nvidia disposal was $6.9 billion smaller than the T-Mobile sales (5.83 − 12.73), or 54.2 percent smaller ((5.83 − 12.73) / 12.73 × 100). Interpretation: on the disclosures available, SoftBank has so far raised more cash by trimming its telecom holding than by exiting its chip stake. This is an arithmetic comparison of two disclosed disposals over different periods, not a forecast of further sales or a statement of strategic intent.

On the OpenAI side, SoftBank's own October 1 press release states the company executed the third and final tranche of a follow-on investment of $10 billion via SoftBank Vision Fund 2, completing $30 billion in previously announced follow-on investments. SoftBank says its cumulative investment in OpenAI now totals $64.6 billion, for an ownership interest of approximately 13 percent.

Recent earnings: gains alongside a profit miss

CNBC reported that SoftBank's Vision Fund posted a $2.4 billion gain in the December quarter, including a $4.2 billion gain on the value of its OpenAI stake in the fiscal third quarter and a $17 billion gain on the OpenAI investment over the April-to-December period. Despite those gains, group net profit of 248.6 billion yen (about $1.6 billion) missed analyst estimates, though CNBC noted it was a reversal from a loss in the same period a year earlier.

SoftBank also created a new "AI Computing Segment" in its earnings report, grouping chip designer Arm with Graphcore and Ampere, two other semiconductor businesses it has acquired, CNBC reported. According to CNBC, that segment lost 91.8 billion yen in the nine months to December because of higher headcount and acquisition-related costs tied to Ampere.

Bottom line: The $100 billion Gulf fundraising remains reported rather than confirmed. SoftBank has not commented on the plan, according to European Business Magazine, and no Gulf institution has been reported as confirming or denying participation. What is on the record is a group leaning heavily on leverage and asset sales to fund its AI commitments, including a cumulative $64.6 billion invested in OpenAI for an ownership interest of approximately 13 percent, per SoftBank's own October 1 disclosure.