- Almost no one attended a panel that included Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank Corp, at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative conference Wednesday, Bloomberg reported.
- Son's chilly reception at the conference likely reflects declining interest in the second iteration of SoftBank's Vision Fund.
- The first Vision Fund has run into trouble in 2019 as top investments WeWork and Uber have struggled.
- It's a stark difference from Son's reception at the conference two years ago, according to Bloomberg.
- Read more on Business Insider.
A panel including Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, drew almost no attendees at Saudi Arabia's Future Investment Initiative, dubbed "Davos in the desert," according to Bloomberg News.
Son's chilly reception at the conference likely reflects declining interest in the second iteration of SoftBank's Vision Fund. The first was a $100 billion mega-fund that invested in a number of buzzy tech startups, including WeWork and Uber - both of which have struggled in 2019.
The first Vision Fund reportedly lost as much as $600 million due to Uber's struggling stock performance, according to CNBC. And, the fund has dumped a considerable amount of money into WeWork - it recently bailed out the flailing company with a $9.5 billion rescue package for an 80% stake, on top of its previous $10.65 billion investment.
Son spoke little on the panel, which was about investing in deep tech, and didn't talk about Saudi Arabia's commitment to SoftBank's second $108 billion Vision Fund, a huge fund the Japanese company intends to invest in startups, according to the report.
The two largest backers of the first Vision Fund, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Investment, have not yet decided if, or how much, they will contribute to the second fund, according to Bloomberg.
The reaction to Son's participation in the conference is completely different from two years ago, according to the report.
Then, he sat on a panel with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and committed $500 billion to Neom, Saudi Arabia's futuristic city. Last year, he did not attend the summit following the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, but did meet with the crown prince before the event, Bloomberg reported.