Apple Inc. has been in talks about investing as much as $1 billion in SoftBank Group Corp.'s planned $100 billion tech fund, The Wall Street Journal reported Dec. 12, citing people familiar with the matter.

However, the current level of the discussions could not be determined, and the sources said nothing was finalized yet.

The Japanese tech giant's SoftBank Vision Fund is being set up with Saudi Arabia and other partners, and will be headquartered in London. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said the money would be used for large-scale investments, and recently pledged a $50 billion investment in the U.S. that will be sourced from the fund.

The Journal sources said Apple would be looking to gain insight on emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things by investing in the fund.