Vision Fund, the Sequel
Emailed on July 26th, 2019 in The Friday Forward
SoftBank has announced plans to invest $38 billion into its second Vision Fund (through its Public Investment Fund), which has reached roughly $108 billion, between about $70 billion of commitments from LPs and SoftBank's own investment.
When Softbank announced the sequel to it's current Vision Fund (~$100B AUM) many, including myself, didn't think it was possible.
Then new LP's like Apple and Microsoft came along and made us look silly.
But all this, of course, isn't without controversy. Last year's murder of Saudi journalist and US resident Jamal Khashoggi, which the Saudi government has been linked to, brought an uncomfortable focus to SoftBank's open arms toward the PIF's cash.
The PIF contributed $45 billion to the first Vision Fund, helping to make the kingdom the single biggest backer of US startups, according to a Wall Street Journal report from October. We can only expect that ratio to go up with this second fund.