Sina Tech News reported on the afternoon of August 28, Beijing time. According to reports, SoftBank Group will lead a group of Indian startup founders to Silicon Valley next month to explore artificial intelligence technology, hoping to inject more artificial intelligence elements into their portfolios.
Sumer Juneja (Sumer Juneja), head of investment in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and India at SoftBank Vision Fund, said in an interview that the company is helping the companies it invests in adopt artificial intelligence technology and has arranged for the founders of these companies to communicate with top companies in this field.
SoftBank plans to arrange for up to 20 Indian company founders to accompany them. Companies the company invests in India include Oyo Hotels, ride-hailing company Ola, and takeaway platform Swiggy.
SoftBank, under the helm of Sun Zheng, has always been active in the venture capital field, but it previously suspended investment due to investors' disappointment with loss-making startups, and then began restarting investment in the second quarter of this year. The Japanese giant has over $40 billion in cash and is currently raising more capital by preparing for the listing of chip design company Arm.
“We don't want the companies we invest in to miss out on the wave of artificial intelligence and wait until three years from now to regret it.” “Important factors we consider when investing in new companies include the need to have a first-class technical team, and that the industry in which we are located can use artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency of the business model,” Junigha said.
As ChatGPT becomes popular all over the world, investors are now stepping up their support for artificial intelligence companies. Junija believes that if artificial intelligence technology cannot be used quickly, a large number of enterprises in many industries, including SaaS, will become redundant. The biggest challenge today, however, is how to make the most of this technology.
“If you get in too late, you'll miss out on opportunities. If you enter the market too early, the impact on revenue is limited. Our role is to help companies transition smoothly.” he said.
Sun Zhengyi founded Vision Fund in 2017. Since then, it has invested more than 140 billion US dollars in startups to support the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. However, many companies, including co-working startup WeWork, have experienced a sharp drop in valuation.