SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has indicated intentions to make inroads into the US ride-hailing market with a multi-billion dollar investment in Uber or Lyft, CNN’s Sherisse Pham reports.

At a news conference Monday, Son said his company was “definitely interested” in pursuing a partnership with one of the two ride-hailing operations. Son expects a boom in the ride-hailing industry to accompany the rise of self-driving cars.

“…when that stage comes [i.e. when autonomous cars sponsored by ride-hailing companies hit the streets],” said Son, “this ride share business becomes even more important.”

SoftBank already holds sizable stakes in a host of Asian ride-hailing companies, including China’s Didi Chuxing, India’s Ola, Brazil’s 99, and Singapore’s Grab. According to The Wall Street Journal, Son’s interest in Uber may indicate that he believes the US startup will combine its operations with Ola and Grab. 

Uber has set a precedent of willingness to partner with local companies in international markets. After a heated competition between Uber and Didi Chuxing ended in a stalemate, Uber agreed to sell its Chinese business to Didi in exchange for a 20% stake in the Chinese company. In July, Uber announced plans to strike a similar deal with Russia’s YandexTaxi.

On July 25, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank was considering investment in Uber, but said negotiations between the two companies were “preliminary and one-sided.” A deal would likely be postponed until Uber appointed a new CEO in the wake of former chief Travis Kalanick’s resignation over sexual harassment allegations in June. The scandal also left the company without a chief operating officer, a general counsel, and an independent board chair, according to Bloomberg. On August 4, The Washington Post reported that Uber’s shortlist for the CEO position had been cut to three people.

The management vacancies, coupled with the increasing success of Lyft, are prompting many early Uber investors to jump ship. Sources told Bloomberg two such investors are negotiating to sell their stakes to larger investment firms.

With a market cap of $89.7 billion, SoftBank is among Japan’s most valuable companies. Its subsidiaries include Sprint, Yahoo! Japan, Myspace Japan, and myriad others.

In May, SoftBank, along with Saudi Arabia, Apple, and others, formed a $100 billion dollar tech fund, called the Vision Fund, that “will focus on investments of more than $100 million in technology businesses of the future,” according to a CNN report. It is unclear whether SoftBank’s investment in Uber or Lyft will be pulled from that fund.

Last Thursday, SoftBank contributed $250 million to Kabbage, a financial technology company based in Atlanta, GA. Kabbage, a next generation lending company, uses an online system to quickly evaluate a small business’s eligibility for a capital loan. According to the company’s website, the evaluation process analyzes business performance as well as credit score, and a customer can gain approval for a loan in less than 10 minutes. The website also says Kabbage has lent more than $3.5 billion dollars worth of funding to more than 100,000 businesses.

Kabbage licenses out its technology to traditional banks who wish to offer automated lending; the program is currently used by banks like Banco Santander SA (SAN.MC), ING Groep NV, and Scotiabank. SoftBank is the first Asian player outside of China to enter the automated lending space.

Son’s press conference on Monday coincided with the release of SoftBank’s quarterly earnings report, in which the company reported $4.33 billion worth of profit—a 50% year-over-year increase. The jump came after SoftBank included the Vision Fund as a reportable segment for the first time.

Profits were further boosted by the success of Sprint, in which SoftBank owns an 80% stake. The cellular service provider reported its first profit in more than three years Monday. SoftBank is considering a potential merger between Sprint and T-Mobile, or between Sprint and Charter Communications Incorporated.

SoftBank’s shares have risen just over 1% since Monday.

Featured Image via Flickr/Nobuyuki Hayashi