SoftBank launches second vision Fund of $108 billion to invest in AI tech startups around the world

SoftBank Group is at it again. This time, the Japanese tech giant is unveiling second technology megafund even bigger than its nearly $100 billion Vision Fund 2 to invest in technology startups developing artificial intelligence technologies around the world, SoftBank announced Friday.

The new fund is bringing on investors including: Apple, Microsoft, iPhone assembler Foxconn, Standard Chartered Bank, Japanese financial giants Mizuho Bank, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and MUFG Bank. Notably absent from SoftBank’s list of expected investors for the new fund were the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi. SoftBank said it plans to contribute $38 billion into the new fund.

Vision Fund 2, as the company is calling it, expects to gather some $108 billion in capital from more than a dozen investors that have signed memorandums of understanding, ranging from Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to Kazakhstan’s sovereign-wealth fund, SoftBank said Friday.