The SoftBank Vision Fund has announced its first major close with over $93 billion of committed capital, including the $15 billion it has received from Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, officially becoming the world’s biggest private equity fund.
In addition to SoftBank Group Corp (SBG) and the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (PIF) as previously announced, investors in the Fund also include Apple, Foxconn, Qualcomm and Sharp. The Fund is targeting a total of $100 billion of committed capital, with a final close within six months.
The Fund will target long-term investments in companies and foundational platform businesses that “seek to enable the next age of innovation.”
It will seek to acquire minority and majority interests in both private and public companies, from emerging technology businesses to established, multi-billion dollar companies requiring substantial growth funding.
The Fund is expected to be active across a wide range of technology sectors, including IoT, artificial intelligence, robotics, mobile applications and computing, communications infrastructure and telecoms, computational biology and other data-driven business models, cloud technologies and software, consumer internet businesses and financial technology.
The Fund will have the right to acquire certain investments already acquired (or agreed to be acquired) by the SoftBank Group, including 24.99% of its holding in ARM, and investments in Guardant Health, Intelsat, NVIDIA, OneWeb and SoFi.
“Our participation in the SoftBank Vision Fund perfectly complements Mubadala’s strategy as a long-term global investor and partner to the technology sector’s high-growth companies,” Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Group CEO of Mubadala Investment Company said. “Technology and innovation are central to the UAE’s economic diversification strategy, and we believe the Vision Fund has the scale to deploy significant capital into these disruptive industries that are shaping the future.”
The Fund will be SBG’s primary vehicle to realise its SoftBank 2.0 vision, with preferred access to investments of $100 million or more that meet the Fund’s investment strategy.
Yasir Al Rumayyan, managing director of the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, said, “Our investment in the SoftBank Vision Fund alongside other sovereign and corporate investors is an important part of our overall investment strategy. We are building a portfolio that is diversified across sectors, asset classes and geographies, and expect the Vision Fund to act as a platform to access a range of exciting, emerging opportunities in the technology sector. We expect that this will, in turn, help enable the Public Investment Fund’s role in supporting the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy to develop a diversified, knowledge-based economy.”
“Technology has the potential to address the biggest challenges and risks facing humanity today,” Masayoshi Son, chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group said. “The businesses working to solve these problems will require patient long-term capital and visionary strategic investment partners with the resources to nurture their success. SoftBank has long made bold investments in transformative technologies and supported disruptive entrepreneurs. The SoftBank Vision Fund is consistent with this strategy and will help build and grow businesses creating the foundational platforms of the next stage of the information revolution.”
The Fund will be advised by wholly-owned subsidiaries of SBG, known collectively as “SB Investment Advisers”. Rajeev Misra will serve as the CEO of SB Investment Advisers and will be a member of the Investment Committee. Nizar Al-Bassam and Dalinc Ariburnu of newly formed Centricus, who advised on structuring and fund raising efforts for the Vision Fund, will continue their roles as advisers.
SBG’s commitment to invest $28 billion in the Fund will be partially satisfied through the in-kind contribution of approximately 24.99 percent of its shares in ARM, at a value of approximately $8.2 billion.
ARM will continue to be a consolidated subsidiary of SBG. SBG will continue to control 100 percent of the voting rights of ARM, through its retained ownership of approximately 75.01 percent of the shares and its ownership of the entities managing and advising the Fund.
The Fund’s general partner is a wholly-owned subsidiary of SBG, as are each of the SB Investment Advisers, including the Fund’s primary investment adviser, SB Investment Advisers (UK) Limited.
