Apple confirmed today that is getting into the venture capital game by investing in one of the world’s largest tech funds.
SoftBank’s new Vision Fund received $1 billion from Apple, according to a company spokesperson that revealed the company is investing in the $100 billion fund to gain access to future technology.
“We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple,” Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told the Wall Street Journal.
Softbank’s megafund
Apple and the Japanese telecom company SoftBank have a long history of working together with the iPhone. The company announced it was creating the tech fund in October of last year with the goal of getting $100 billion in capitol.
The fund is set to launch in early 2017. Money from the fund will be invested in cutting-edge technology like machine learning, AI, connected devices and new hardware. Investing in the fund is a shift in strategy for Apple which has been highly secretive of technology its pursuing.
SoftBank if putting $25 billion of its own money to the fund. Other contributors include Saudi Arabia’s government which is investing $45 billion.