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Bloomberg
SoftBank Group Corp. has contributed $5 billion to last month’s record $5.5 billion fundraising by Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing. SoftBank Group Capital Ltd., an investment arm of Masayoshi Son’s technology empire, contributed $2 billion to last month’s record fundraising by Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing.
SBGC invested the money in Xiaoju Kuaizhi Inc., the formal name for Didi, according to a filing with the UK’s Companies House. In its earnings announcement Wednesday, SoftBank said that its entire investment via a subsidiary into Didi totaled $5 billlion. In the previous month, it invested $150 million in entities connected to investment bank Raine Group LLC, including its parent.
Didi’s $5.5 billion funding last month was the latest to be backed by Son’s company as he seeks to find his next Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., an investment that has delivered a paper profit of about $85 billion. Other investments made by SBGC include $300 million in WeWork Cos., $63.5 million in SB Energy Holdings Ltd. and $75 million for Zymergen, a bio-technology company based in California, according to the filing.
Son has been trying to close the $100 billion SoftBank Vision Fund to spearhead future technology investments. SoftBank Group Corp. has said it will contribute $25 billion to the fund, Saudi Arabia is putting in $45 billion and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Development Co. is said to plan investing as much as $15 billion. Apple Inc., Qualcomm Inc. and Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison may invest $1 billion each, people familiar with the matter have said. SoftBank and representatives for Didi at Brunswick Group declined to comment.