Apple to invest in Softbank fund

NHK has learned that US tech giant Apple and other investors will contribute to a fund being set up by Japanese telecom firm Softbank Group.

Softbank said last October that it will establish a fund of about 10 trillion yen or 90 billion dollars to invest in firms and projects involving cutting-edge IT technologies.

A Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund had already announced its intent to invest in the fund.

Sources say a sovereign wealth fund of the United Arab Emirates has newly agreed to invest 15 billion dollars.

They say Apple and US chipmaker Qualcomm also plan to pay around 1 billion dollars each.

Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry, together with its subsidiary Sharp, will also invest.

Larry Ellison, the founder of US software company Oracle, plans to contribute around 1 billion dollars.

Softbank will put 25 billion dollars into the fund.

The group's Chairman and CEO, Masayoshi Son, will soon officially announce the newly agreed investors.

Son met Donald Trump last December before he was inaugurated as US president. Son told Trump of his plans to actively invest in the US.

Son will go to Saudi Arabia this weekend, while Trump is there on his first foreign visit as president.

(NHK)