Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. headlines a growing list of investors in SoftBank Group Corp.’s $100 billion technology fund, which is expected to include Foxconn Technology Group Ltd. and the family office of Oracle Corp. Chairman Larry Ellison, the Japanese telecommunications giant said Wednesday.

Apple separately said it plans to invest $1 billion in the Japanese telecom giant’s fund. “We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple,” said Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet. She added that Apple has worked with SoftBank for many years.

The trio joins a list of investors that includes Qualcomm Inc. and Saudi Arabia’s government, which plans to invest $45 billion over a five-year period, SoftBank said Wednesday. SoftBank will invest $25 billion in its fund, it added.

Lots of reasons for Apple to do this. They’ll be cementing partnerships with Foxconn, Qualcomm, and others and the fund itself could prove quite lucrative. But can’t help but wonder if this is part of a larger deal with the incoming Trump administration, who’ve long hawked Trump’s agreement with Softbank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son to invest $50B to bring jobs to the US.