The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported on the 1st that Japan’s Softbank’s Vision Fund, led by Son Jeong-ui, the third-generation Korean-Japanese, will invest $500 million in Unopened AI, a ChatGPT developer.
This is equivalent to half of the total investment worth 1 billion dollars of Scrib Capital, which is leading the investment. Microsoft, an existing investor, is also expected to invest another 1 billion dollars. OpenAI’s funding will be completed within this week, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Pryor said.
Softbank, which is investing in open AI for the first time, is putting AI as the core of its next-generation business strategy. “The era of universal AI will come within three to five years. AI will come around 10 years,” Son said at the general shareholders’ meeting in June, expressing his commitment to invest in AI.
SoftBank previously invested $20 million in “Purplexity,” a U.S. AI search engine startup that is one of OpenAI’s competitive startups.
SoftBank suffered major losses due to failed investments in shared office companies WeWork and Alibaba, and a decline in technology stocks after the spread of COVID-19. Since then, Chairman Sohn has invested in generative AI one after another, saying, “We will lead the AI revolution within 10 years.”
EJ SONG
US ASIA JOURNAL
