SoftBank Group’s Vision Fund is considering cutting as much as 20% of its staff, a person familiar with the matter said, underscoring a shift in CEO Masayoshi Son’s focus to ambitious bets on artificial intelligence.
The unit, which employed about 282 people as of the end of March, may shed more than 50 roles, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
The reduction extends years of cutbacks as the Vision Fund unit shrank in importance next to Son’s growing appetite for big AI bets. Those include a plan to invest about $30 billion in OpenAI and a $6.5 billion deal to acquire chip designer Ampere Computing, which faces regulatory scrutiny. SoftBank has so far invested roughly $10 billion in OpenAI.
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