What does SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son plan to say or do about its ties to Saudi Arabia? We’re about to find out
https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/04/what-does-softbanks-masayoshi-son-plan-to-say-or-do-about-its-ties-to-saudi-arabia-were-about-to-find-out/
Throughout October, it seemed that among others in tech, SoftBank might be forced to rethink its cozy relationship with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, or MBS, who has charmed many captains of industry since rising to power, but whose dark side came into abrupt view over the murder and gruesome disposal of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. (MBS has steered Saudi Arabia into plenty of other terribleness, but the brutal end of Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia, a Washington Post columnist, and a critic of MBS, managed to capture the West’s attention in a way that tens of thousands of dead Yemeni children have not.)
Certainly, parting ways with MBS wouldn’t be easy for SoftBank, whose CEO, Masayoshi Son, has said that his ambitious Vision Fund, which finally closed this past May with $100 billion in commitments, is anchored by MBS. In fact, Son has said that MBS committed $45 billion to the effort in 45 minutes time, and MBS more recently revealed his intention to give SoftBank a separate $45 billion for a second Vision Fund.