The scramble for AI cash is on (or rather, accelerating).
Just hours after the FT reported that OpenAI's annualized revenue is roughly $20 billion lower than the figure that had been making the rounds previously, the same paper reported that Masayoshi Son is trying to raise up to $100 billion from Gulf investors, and has spent recent weeks holding talks with senior figures in the UAE. That would be roughly the size of the original Vision Fund, which is either a sign of ambition or of how much more money the AI trade now needs just to stand still. Clearly, in a world of $1.5 trillion in 2027 capex, the answer is the latter.
SOFTBANK SEEKS TO RAISE UP TO $100B FROM GULF INVESTORS: FT
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) October 9, 2026
Regular readers will not be surprised: we have been warning that the AI buildout runs on debt since exactly one year ago today, and SoftBank, which has committed some $65 billion to OpenAI, has spent most of 2026 as the poster child for that thesis. Over the past nine months Son has tapped bridge loans, margin loans on Arm and OpenAI shares, Japanese retail savers and, most recently, the largest junk bond on record. Now that the usual spigots have been opened all the way, it's time to call the sovereigns.
Below we walk through what Son is pitching to Abu Dhabi, how the money ma
