Softbank Group Corp's Vision Fund has fired 20% of its workers in an attempt to shift its focus to artificial intelligence, multiple reports said Friday.
According to a report from Bloomberg's source of citation, SoftBank's Vision Fund Unit could potentially let go of more than 50 employees as part of a job offer. As of the end of March this year, the Vision Fund had employed around 282 people.
Vision Fund layoffs are part of a long-standing cut as the units lose importance compared to the growing son's son's on AI bets.
A Vision Fund spokesperson confirmed the reduction in future work without further elaboration.
“We will continue to coordinate our organization to maximize our long-term strategy. We will force bold, high convictions on AI and groundbreaking technology,” the spokesperson said in an email.
SoftBank's AI Plan
Masayoshi Son's AI plan includes an investment of around $30 billion in Openai and a $6.5 billion deal to acquire Chip Designer Ampere computing, which is facing regulatory scrutiny. SoftBank has invested around $10 billion in Openai so far.
Japanese companies are also partnering with Openai and Oracle Corp. to deploy a $500 billion Stargate initiative to build AI data centers and other infrastructures across the US. His son has worked on another $1 trillion project to establish an AI Industrial Park and is seeking a partnership from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Reuters first reported staff cuts. Livemint could not independently verify the reliability of the report.
SoftBank's Vision Fund sells its major assets to function to secure funds for substantial AI investments.
With the company focusing on fairly large investment transactions, Vision Fund no longer requires an army of investment advisors to oversee fresh or existing transactions.
According to SoftBank's annual securities report, the $100 billion Vision Fund, launched in 2017, employed as much as 474 people at its peak in the year ended March 2020. The unit's workforce has since been shrinking by about 40%.
The restructuring shows his son's return to his classic high-risk, high-reward approach. Make huge, concentrated bets and move from the vast venture capital model that defined the last era of vision funds.
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