Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala partners Softbank in technology investments

Abu Dhabi investor Mubadala has made 15 to 16 investments in technology firms as part of a partnership with SoftBank Group of Japan, deputy group chief executive Waleed al-Muhairi told a conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Mubadala has committed $15 billion to SoftBank’s $93 billion private equity fund, the SoftBank Vision Fund, which has also raised money from Saudi Arabia’s main sovereign wealth fund and other investors.

“We have done 15 to 16 different investments today, mostly centered in Silicon Valley,” Muhairi said, adding that areas of investment included artificial intelligence and biotechnology.

“Those businesses will be incredibly disruptive,” he said.

In October, Mubadala said it had launched a venture capital arm that would oversee an early growth fund set up with SoftBank and a fund of funds focusing on emerging fund managers.

Muhairi said the 15 to 16 technology investments were made as part of Mubadala’s partnership with SoftBank, and that the Vision Fund was involved in some of them.

Mubadala is looking at new sectors for investment, such as transportation and roads globally, he said, adding that the state fund could also exit some investments by next year. He did not disclose names.

Mubadala, which managed 465.5 billion dirhams ($127 billion) at the end of June, has indicated before that it could list its unit Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s biggest aluminium producers, next year.