The Softbank CEO has reportedly canceled his event at the Saudi investment conference

Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Masayoshi Son, chairman and chief executive officer of SoftBank Group Corp., speaks at the SoftBank World 2018 event in Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, July 19, 2018. 

The CEO of technology investment firm SoftBank has become the latest high-profile business figure to withdraw from a major finance conference in Saudi Arabia, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Masayoshi Son has canceled his visit following the unexplained death of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi, at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2.

The SoftBank leader had originally planned to conduct a speaking engagement at the Future Investment Initiative in Riyadh, which began Tuesday.

The non-appearance of Son could cause acute embarrassment and anger in Riyadh, given SoftBank’s close ties to Saudi Arabia.

In recent years, the kingdom has poured an increasing amount of money into SoftBank’s $100 billion “Vision Fund”. Saudi Arabia, via its own sovereign wealth pot, is the fund’s biggest contributor.

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