Saudi-Japan tech venture fund is world’s biggest

Japan’s SoftBank tech conglomerate and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund have gathered $93 billion to back new ventures, from artificial intelligence to medical devices, across the technology landscape.

The fund’s goal is to top reserves of $100 billion to plunk into public and private companies that will define the tech economy’s future.

Called The Vision Fund, the two lead investors have gleaned capital commitments from Abu Dhabi’s capital fund and corporations including Apple, Foxconn Technology Group, Qualcomm and Sharp.

The fund already is bidding up prices; its early big investments in start-ups such as England’s Improbable Worlds virtual-reality venture and Paytm, India’s online payment company, have blocked opportunities here for other investors.