Mubadala to invest up to $15B in SoftBank fund

abu dhabi — Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co plans to invest as much as $15 billion in SoftBank Group Corp’s Vision Fund and start two new venture capital funds to build its technology holdings.

The SoftBank fund will be “wrapped up” in two to three weeks with about $95 billion of commitments, according to Ibrahim Ajami, head of venture capital at Mubadala Capital, the sovereign wealth fund’s investment arm. Mubadala plans to make its investment over the next five years, he said.

“This is a significant opportunity for good financial returns,” Ajami said in an interview in Abu Dhabi on Sunday. “Our priority is financial return, if you look at his track record over the past 30 years, what he’s been able to achieve in technology, no other investor has,” Ajami said, referring to SoftBank chief executive officer Masayoshi Son.

“Technology impacts everything, it has become foundational to every sector around the world,” Ajami said. “The amount of change that’s happening really provide an opportunity to generate some good return — with the right investment, the right approach and the right thesis.”

Mubadala already fully own Globalfoundries Inc, the California-based maker of semiconductors and holds a stake in Advanced Micro Devices. In the UAE, it has a holding in telecommunication services provider Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Co, known as du, and owns satellite operator Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. — Bloomberg