TOKYO -- The Saudi Arabian government is prepared to pour an additional $45 billion into funds operated by Japan's Masayoshi Son, who is planning on setting up additional investment vehicles alongside the existing $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund, indicating that the Middle Eastern kingdom will likely continue to be an investor in these endeavors.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told Bloomberg in an interview published Friday U.S. time that the sovereign wealth fund that he chairs, the Public Investment Fund, will make the investment. The SoftBank Vision Fund was established in 2017.
“We have a huge benefit from the first one,” he is quoted as saying. “We would not put, as PIF, another $45 billion if we didn’t see huge income in the first year with the first $45 billion.”
Asked by Nikkei on Saturday about the added investment, SoftBank Group said it would refrain from commenting.
The Vision Fund invests in growth companies around the world and is the top shareholder in ride-hailing pioneer Uber Technologies. Out of roughly $100 billion, it had already invested $27.1 billion as of the end of June. Son told Nikkei in an interview that he envisions "setting up second, third, fourth vision funds at two to three years intervals."
