> I’d be furious if it were my money being flushed down the toilet this way

You'd make a bad Saudi prince.

I think they already are. There are rumors Softbank may have trouble raising subsequent vision funds.

I read somewhere that softbank is a huge benefactor in japan central bank QE. So basically vision fund is for people with more money then they know what to do with and didn’t really earn it the hard way.

They could have spent it more wisely.

There is a hell of a lot of money that doesn’t have a safe home. If you’re wealthy in 2019, it may cost you money just to stash it somewhere low risk. Now extend that to sovereign funds, etc., and you can start to see why these obvious shenanigans are tolerated. A zero percent “return” is a net gain over holding in savings or bonds in a lot of places.

It depends on your definition of "wealthy".

If you're worth less than 12 digits, you can easily "stash" your money in 3-month US treasury bills. They currently yield about 1.63%. https://www.bankrate.com/rates/interest-rates/91-day-treasur...

Granted, if you're a Russian Oligarch or similar, this might not meet your definition of "a safe home". Otherwise, they're about as low risk as possible.

I agree with your take on sovereign funds etc. The whole world can't just park its excess cash in T-bills.

But unless you're talking about the dumbest of this money, it should be very broadly diversified: worldwide stock markets, bonds, real estate, natural resources, and smaller amounts to things like venture capital.

It's almost entirely Saudi money. Although the new vision fund is supposedly Saudi free.