SoftBank seeks 100 billion from Gulf states for AI, FT says

SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son speaks during an event in Tokyo in July. SoftBank Group seeks to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to help it amp up its bets on artificial intelligence (AI), the Financial Times (FT) reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Founder Masayoshi Son has held early talks with potential investors including those in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said. The proposed fund would buy companies and use AI and machines, including from SoftBank's robotics arm Roze, to improve operations, the FT said. Fundraising of that scale would fuel more spending by the tech investment firm, which has invested almost $65 billion in OpenAI ahead of the AI lab's public debut.