Yoshimitsu Goto, the chief financial officer of Japanese investment giant SoftBank, has said the company will “keep focusing on the AI trend” as it announced cumulative losses of over $48 billion on its Vision Fund unit over the last two financial years.

SoftBank founded venture capital fund one and two in 2017 and 2019 respectively for tech-focused investments. As of March 2021, the total fair value of both funds stood at $154 billion.

The news comes amid reports that the conglomerate will launch an Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Cambridge-based chipmaker Arm next month.

Sources told Reuters that SoftBank is keen to attract big-name investors for Arm in a bid to heighten the attractiveness of the IPO, with reports indicating that Amazon is among a roster of firms in talks to invest in the IPO.

Having snubbed London in favour of a New York listing on the Nasdaq, despite UK prime minister Rishi Sunak’s best efforts to convince SoftBank heads to list the IPO in the City, sources previously told the news agency that Arm is seeking to raise $8 to $10 billion.

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