Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group said that it is creating a new fund to invest as much as $100 billion in the technology sector globally over the next five years. The fund, tentatively termed SoftBank Vision Fund, will see participation from Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and will be managed by the company's UK subsidiary. "In addition, a few large global investors are in active dialogue to join SBG and PIF to participate in this Fund," the company said in press release. SoftBank and Saudi Arabia have signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding for the same (MoU). SoftBank will be investing $25 billion while Saudi Arabia may potentially invest $45 billion. The total size of the investment fund is expected to grow to $100 billion with other investors participating. Rajeev Misra, Head of Strategic Finance, SoftBank Group, is leading the Fund project. SoftBank has also engaged former Deutsche banker Nizar Al-Bassam and ex-Goldman partner Dalinc Ariburnu for the project. SoftBank has made tens of billions on investments it made in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and Yahoo. Most recently in July, the company sold at least $7.9 billion of its stake in the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba to reduce its debt. The companyhad first invested in Alibaba in 2000 and owned 32.2% stake in the company. The stake was brought down to 28% now, although SBG claims to still remain Alibaba’s largest stockholder. Investment in ARM technologies SoftBank has also made a $32 billion bet by investing in UK-based chip designer ARM Holdings in June. ARM currently designs various…
