Japan's telecommunications and technology giant SoftBank Group Corp. announced on Thursday it is investing $4.4 billion in WeWork, an American provider of shared workspace and services for entrepreneurs, freelancers and startups.
SoftBank has committed to invest $3 billion in new and existing shares of WeWork's parent company and another $1.4 billion in newly created companies to fund the group's expansion in Japan, South Korea and China, among other countries. However, SoftBank will only contribute a part of the total investment, with the other part coming from its Saudi-backed, $100 billion Vision Fund. The company has already invested $300 million in WeWork in March this year.
"WeWork is leveraging the latest technologies and its own proprietary data systems to radically transform the way people work," said Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive of SoftBank. Adam Neumann, co-founder and chief executive of WeWork, said, "This support from SoftBank and the Vision Fund will provide even more opportunities for creators as we set out to humanize the way people work and live."
