Saudi-SoftBank tech fund nears $100 billion target

Investors have now committed 93 billion U.S. dollars to the SoftBank Vision Fund. [Photo: Caixin.com]

Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank says it has raised nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars with Saudi partners to launch a major global fund for long-term, high-tech investment.

The SoftBank Vision Fund has received participation from industry titans like Apple and Qualcomm and has collected pledges totalling more than 93 billion dollars so far.

SoftBank says it will put up about 25 billion dollars for the Vision Fund over the next five years.

Saudi Arabia is the biggest investor, having previously committed 45 billion dollars from its public investment fund.

The rest of the money will be raised in the next six months.

The fund is expected to invest in sectors including artificial intelligence, robotics and mobile applications.

SoftBank announced its partnership with Saudi Arabia in October.