Original | Wen BFT robot
Recently, Masayoshi Son, who hadn’t shown up for nearly 7 months, appeared at the Softbank Group’s annual shareholder meeting and said that Softbank currently has 5 trillion yen (approximately RMB 254.7 billion) in book cash and is ready to change the defensive mode into an offensive mode. All in AI, and then it invested in a robotics company.
01
Japanese robotics startup Telexistence secures first investment
After the official announcement of All in AI, Masayoshi Son chose the Japanese robot startup Telexistence as the first investment target. According to the technology media website TechCrunch, the company recently received US$170 million in Series B financing. In addition to SoftBank, the investors also include Airbus Venture Capital Fund, ProLogis’s Monoful Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Investment Fund (a fund established by Foxconn and CTBC Financial Holdings), and Japan’s Globis Capital Partners and other venture capital institutions.
Founded in 2017, Telexistence provides artificial intelligence-powered robotic arm devices for the retail and warehouse sectors. At present, the company has accumulated nearly 200 million US dollars in financing and deployed its robot service in 300 FamilyMart convenience stores in Japan.
SoftBank’s investment in Telexistence this time is not only based on the cutting-edge technology held by the company, but also on the judgment of the future development trend of the AI industry. Sun Zhengyi believes that under the wave of technological progress and changes in social needs, AI will surely become an important force to promote economic development and social progress.
Therefore, under the strategic guidance of All in AI, SoftBank is actively looking for companies with innovative capabilities and market potential to invest in. These investments will also provide more resources and support for such cutting-edge technology companies represented by Telexistence, and promote the technology research and development of these companies and advance their commercialization process.
02
SoftBank confident in robotics sector
In fact, this is not Softbank's first attempt in the field of robotics. Softbank has always shown great confidence and concern in the field of robotics. Judging from SoftBank’s previous investment experience, the most concerned one is undoubtedly the acquisition of Aldebaran Robotics, as well as the development cooperation between the two on the humanoid service robot Pepper.
However, the development of Pepper’s commercialization path did not go according to Sun Zhengyi’s expectations. Pepper has only sold about 27,000 units since its launch in 2014 until it was discontinued. SoftBank’s robot business has also been hit hard, with a loss of up to US$1 billion.
Softbank's wide-spreading investment strategy seems to verify this to a certain extent. Some of the more cutting-edge and experimental projects, such as Boston Dynamics acquired by Softbank from Google and Zume, a pizza-making robot, have uncertain prospects for commercialization.
On the contrary, Softbank has achieved initial results in some industrial application robot projects with moderate investment and more practical commercialization, including Brain Corp and Berkshire Grey, which is recently planned to be acquired.
Sun Zhengyi said: When he suffered a huge loss, he "washed his face with tears for several days in a row." Although some projects are facing commercialization difficulties, this has not weakened Softbank's continued focus on the field of robotics. Sun Zhengyi also said that now that the AI wave has provided new opportunities, SoftBank will shift from "defensive mode" to "offensive mode". He is bullish on the revolutionary nature of AI, declaring that SoftBank Group "will eventually rule the world."
03
Softbank's new dynamics under the wave of artificial intelligence
And this year, can Softbank get a share of the wave of artificial intelligence?
According to reports, SoftBank plans to develop generative AI independently and hopes to push more industries into the field of artificial intelligence through its own models. SoftBank believes that in the era of artificial intelligence, the semiconductor industry is a vital engine, and Arm, as an important player in this industry, will lead the development of the industry.
Currently, SoftBank is actively promoting Arm's listing plan. It is understood that Arm is negotiating with potential strategic investors including Intel Corporation, which is considering becoming an anchor investor for Arm's listing. Once listed, Arm is expected to become the world's largest IPO this year.
Through this move, SoftBank hopes to further expand its influence in the fields of artificial intelligence and semiconductors and maintain a competitive advantage in the global technology industry.
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