Overview
SoftBank Group Corp. (TSE: 9984) is a Japanese investment holding conglomerate founded in 1981 by Masayoshi Son. Headquartered in Tokyo, it manages the SoftBank Vision Fund, ARM Holdings, and a global portfolio of technology investments. SoftBank owned Boston Dynamics from 2017 to 2022 before selling it to Hyundai Motor Group, and has invested in numerous robotics and AI companies through its Vision Funds.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- None on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Type
Robotics portfolio
Key holding
RAI Institute deal (reported, Sep 2026)
Data & sources
Web sources
3
3 sources backing this record.View all →
Partnerships
Every company SoftBank has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1NVIDIA3× joint1114 total
- 2OpenAI3× joint6 total
- 3Oracle2× joint7 total
- 41X Technologies1× joint6 total
- 5ABB Robotics1× joint3 total
- 6Amazon1× joint17 total
Most recent
- with 1X Technologiesjust announced
- SoftBank acquires ABB robotics division2026-01-01with ABB Roboticsjust announced
- with OpenAIjust announced
- with Ericssonoperating
- SoftBank x OpenAI Stargate Project2025-01-21with OpenAIoperating
Relationships
Current leadership (3)
- Masayoshi Son Founder & Chairman & CEO, Chairman & CEOsecondary-verified
- Yoshimitsu Goto Senior Vice President, CFO & CISOsecondary-verified
- Ken Miyauchi Board Directorsecondary-verified
Founders (2)
- Masayoshi Sonno longer at company
previously at SoftBank Robotics (Pepper)
- Masayoshi Soncofounderno longer at company
previously at SoftBank Robotics (Pepper)
Media (1)
Company-anchored media. Official assets the company has published at the company level, distinct from model-anchored media that lives on individual product pages.
Safety record
No incidents on record for SoftBank.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
SoftBank on the data-center map
Every verified data center SoftBank operates that has a mapped coordinate (5 total). Filled circles are Tier-2 facilities and Tier-1 campuses under this operator; click any pin to open its record.
SoftBank data centers (5)
- SoftBank/OpenAI Sakai AI Data CenterSakai · under construction
- Stargate AbileneAbilene · partially energized
- Stargate LordstownLordstown · announced
- Stargate Milam CountyRockdale · under construction
- Stargate Milam County CampusMilam · planned
AI data centers SoftBank operates or is a party to, from the DEPLOY data center registry.
Recent coverage
SoftBank in third-party press
Mentioned on (47+)
Registry pages whose text names SoftBank.
Companies (27)
Mythic AI, Lancium, Jaka Robotics, KEENON Robotics, Aquabyte, Plenty, Youibot Robotics, Autonomous Solutions Inc, Agile Robots, Balyo, Telexistence, Opentrons, RAI Institute, Stargate Infrastructure, SB Energy (SoftBank Group), G42, 1X Technologies, OpenAI, Skild AI, Wayve, Sesterce, Noetra, Hyundai Motor Group, CloudMinds, and 3 more
Robots and products (8)
ASI Autonomous Vehicle, Servi, Jaka Zu 12, Balyo MV, Berkshire Grey System, Symbot, MK-V, Versius
AI systems (2)
People (9)
Rich Hossfeld, Abhijeet Sathe, Yoshimitsu Goto, Ken Miyauchi, Bruno Maisonnier, Masayoshi Son, Leif Jentoft, Vikas Parekh, Kentaro Matsui
Incidents (1)
About 7 more pages name SoftBank and were not checked here.
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- aggregator_estimate
- Lifecycle stage
- mature
- Counterparty risk class
- low
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
13 total · 10 operating · 3 just announced · 2 ended
Every company SoftBank has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- with 1X Technologiesjust announced
- SoftBank acquires ABB robotics division2026-01-01with ABB Roboticsjust announced
- with OpenAIjust announced
- with Ericssonoperating
- SoftBank x OpenAI Stargate Project2025-01-21with OpenAIoperating
Most-frequent partners
- 1NVIDIA3× joint1114 total
- 2OpenAI3× joint6 total
- 3Oracle2× joint7 total
- 41X Technologies1× joint6 total
- 5ABB Robotics1× joint3 total
- 6Amazon1× joint17 total
All 13 partnerships
open in the atlas →- softbank x nvidiawithNVIDIA1114technology—operating
- softbank x awswithAWS976technology—operating
- SoftBank x Ericsson NextWave Tech PartnershipwithEricssondevelopment2025-03-26operating
- SoftBank x OpenAI Stargate ProjectwithOpenAIjoint venture2025-01-21operating
- joint venture2025-01-21operating
- investment2024-10-02operating
Acquisitions (4)
- acquired RAI Institutefull acquisitionannounced2026-09-18
- acquired ABB Roboticsfull acquisitionannounced2025-10-08
- acquired Berkshire Greyfull acquisition2023-03-24
- acquired Boston Dynamicsfull acquisition2017-06-01
Timeline
Every recorded move in SoftBank’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
Started supplyingBecame supplier to SoftBank Robotics
2026-08-23Supply: Cloud services and AI platform to SoftBank Robotics
PartnershipSoftBank acquires ABB robotics division
2026-01-01SoftBank announced 5.4 billion USD acquisition of ABB robotics division explicitly framing physical AI as its next frontier. Major consolidation in industrial robotics.
AcquisitionAcquired ABB Robotics business
2025-10-08Acquired ABB Robotics business (full_acquisition)
PartnershipSoftBank x Ericsson NextWave Tech Partnership
2025-03-26Ericsson and SoftBank Corp entered a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a strategic partnership towards 2030. The collaboration focuses on evaluating promoting and co-creating NextWave Tech including AI Cloud RAN XR and 6G technologies for future cellular networks.
PartnershipSoftBank x OpenAI Stargate Project
2025-01-21SoftBank and OpenAI are lead partners in the Stargate Project a joint venture to build AI infrastructure in the United States. The project plans to deploy 100 billion immediately with a total 500 billion commitment over multiple years alongside Oracle and MGX.
PartnershipSoftBank Group x OpenAI investment
2024-10-02SoftBank Group committed up to 40B USD investment in OpenAI across multiple closings, with 10B completed in April 2025 and a second installment of 22.5B in October 2025. As of end of 2025, SoftBank's cumulative investment reached approximately 34.6B USD for an 11% stake, making it OpenAI's third-largest shareholder.
PartnershipSkild AI Series A (2024)
2024-07-09Skild AI raised a $300 million Series A (announced July 9, 2024) at about a $1.5B valuation to build a scalable AI foundation model for robotics; led by Lightspeed, Coatue, SoftBank Group and Jeff Bezos, with participation from Amazon, Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, General Catalyst, and Carnegie Mellon University.
PartnershipWayve Series C (2024)
2024-05-07Wayve closed a $1.05 billion Series C (announced May 7, 2024), led by SoftBank Group with participation from NVIDIA and existing investor Microsoft, to advance its embodied-AI autonomous-driving technology.
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdAug 19, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Verified media addedVerifiedJul 23, 2026
SoftBank Group logo
Sources (3)
Common questions
What is SoftBank?
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Is SoftBank safe?
Methodology: Verified · 3 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-10-10
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-10-10
Sources by quality tier
- 3
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for SoftBank.In the press
Recent coverage mentioning SoftBank from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
SoftBank-Backed OPay Wins $185 Million Standard Bank Placement
SoftBank Group Corp.-backed OPay Digital Services Ltd. secured about $185 million in a private placement with Africa’s biggest bank as it prepares to list in the US.
SoftBank Seeks Up to $100B From Gulf Investors to Expand AI and Robotics Bets
SoftBank Group is seeking as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to scale up its artificial intelligence investments, according to the Financial Times, citing people familiar…
SoftBank’s Son Seeks $100 Billion From Gulf Investors for AI Bets
<p>SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son is looking to raise up to $100 billion from Gulf investors to finance his AI investments, The Financial Times reported.</p> <p>Son has held…
SoftBank seeks $100 billion from Gulf states for AI, FT says
Founder Masayoshi Son has held early talks with potential investors including those in the United Arab Emirates, the newspaper said.
SoftBank Seeks $100 Billion From Gulf States for AI, FT Says
SoftBank Group Corp. seeks to raise as much as $100 billion from Gulf investors to help it amp up its bets on AI, the Financial Times reported, citing people familiar with the…
SoftBank, Grab explore AI infrastructure in Sarawak
Grab secured US$1.46 billion from SoftBank’s Vision Fund in 2019.
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Warns on AI Safety
Speaking at a tech forum, SoftBank chief Masayoshi Son - one of AI’s fervent believers - said that even he is worried about safety risks as machines quickly gain more abilities.…
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son says superintelligence in the wrong hands could be “super dangerous”
Masayoshi Son, who has put $64.6bn into OpenAI and calls bubble talk absurd, said in Kyoto that superintelligence in the wrong hands could become super dangerous and that…
SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son Has Rare Cautionary Note on AI Safety
SoftBank Group Corp. chief Masayoshi Son — one of AI’s fervent believers — said that even he’s worried about safety risks as machines quickly gain more abilities.
SoftBank stock investors see past credit risks to AI returns
Masayoshi Son's diverse exposure across the AI landscape —ranging from robotics, data centers and energy — reassures some equity investors.
SoftBank Investors Look Past Credit Risks to Gauge AI Upside
SoftBank Group Corp.’s equity investors are shrugging off worries about the Japanese company’s higher borrowing costs and focusing on potential returns from its bets on AI.
SoftBank completes final phase of $30 billion investment in OpenAI
Oct 1 (Reuters) - SoftBank Group said on Thursday it has completed its $30 billion investment in OpenAI as part of its commitment to the ChatGPT maker...
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/softbank.md
- RSS feed: /companies/softbank/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/95310d9e-4092-49b2-b7e7-880ac8cfa2ad
- Revision history: /companies/softbank/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Heat Index
Serious58/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Not enough verified signal yet to place SoftBank against peers. Reality and attention percentiles publish once the underlying record clears its data floor.
6-month trend
Analysis
Limited public funding data for capital position assessment.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Oct 11, 2026