SoftBank Vision Fund
Japan-based SoftBank Group's venture capital arm, the world's largest technology fund at US$100 billion, reshaped global startup funding and is now a dominant OpenAI backer.
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What it is
The SoftBank Vision Fund is the venture capital arm of Japan's SoftBank Group Corp. (Tokyo: 9984), led by founder and CEO Masayoshi Son. Its mandate is to take large, concentrated positions in founders building companies that will define the AI economy, deploying capital at scale across hardware, infrastructure, and applications. The fund invests globally, with offices in Tokyo, London, and San Francisco, targeting growth-stage and late-stage private companies.
Two main vehicles operate under the brand. SVF1, closed in May 2017 at US$100 billion, was the largest technology-focused investment fund ever raised at its launch. SVF2, launched in 2019 and funded primarily by SoftBank itself, has committed approximately US$56 billion. A separate Latin America Fund, launched in 2019, committed US$5 billion.
History
SoftBank Group announced SVF1 in October 2016 following a meeting between Son and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The fund closed in May 2017, co-anchored by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (US$45 billion) and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment Company (US$15 billion). Corporate limited partners included Apple, Sharp, Qualcomm, and Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision. The stated thesis: a handful of AI-era platform companies would capture most of the world's software value, and only a fund large enough to write US$1-5 billion checks could take meaningful stakes at late-stage valuations.
SVF1 backed Uber, ByteDance (TikTok's parent), Arm Holdings, Coupang, DoorDash, DiDi Chuxing, and WeWork, among others. The WeWork investment became the fund's most visible failure. Son overrode internal objections and SoftBank committed more than US$10 billion across Vision Fund and balance-sheet lines at a peak WeWork valuation of US$47 billion in early 2019. WeWork's IPO collapsed that autumn; cumulative losses on the stake reached US$14.2 billion by September 2023. Other material write-downs included Greensill Capital, Katerra, and OneWeb. SVF1 booked a record loss of US$32 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2023.
SVF2 was funded almost entirely by SoftBank to reduce dependency on sovereign limited partners following that backlash.
Current state
Beginning in 2024, Son repositioned the Vision Fund as an AI-first vehicle. The most consequential move was OpenAI, where SoftBank committed more than US$30 billion across the OpenAI US$122 billion round and earlier tranches. That stake generated US$45 billion in investment gains in the fiscal year ended March 2026, driving a total Vision Fund gain of US$46 billion for the year, the largest annual gain in the fund's history.
The fund also led a US$1.4 billion Series C for Pittsburgh-based Skild AI in January 2026, backing a general-purpose robotics foundation model as part of a broader robotics and physical AI thesis. As of mid-2026, the Vision Fund has backed 355 companies in total, recording 134 unicorns, 49 IPOs, and 35 acquisitions since inception.
Relationships
SoftBank Group Corp. is the managing member of both SVF1 and SVF2. Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund remains the largest external limited partner in SVF1, giving the fund a structural link to Gulf capital and the Saudi Vision 2030 technology program. Masayoshi Son retains decision-making authority; his conviction-driven style has been both the fund's edge and its greatest source of volatility. Son personally incurred debt of approximately US$5 billion to SoftBank against paper losses in 2022-2023, a position that the OpenAI gain reversed in FY2025. Arm Holdings, a wholly-owned SoftBank subsidiary, intersects with Vision Fund portfolio interests in semiconductor and AI infrastructure.
What to watch
OpenAI's path to a public market listing will directly affect Vision Fund mark-to-market values, which as of mid-2026 are heavily concentrated in a single unrealised stake. SVF2 remains funded almost entirely by SoftBank's own balance sheet, meaning further losses would fall on the parent company rather than external limited partners. Son has publicly signaled ambitions to raise a successor fund focused on artificial general intelligence, though no formal close has been announced as of mid-2026. Governance risk, historically concentrated in Son's personal conviction, is a structural factor analysts cite alongside the fund's outsized returns.