SoftBank Group

A Japanese tech-investment conglomerate making large recent bets on robotics and physical AI.

SoftBank Group was founded by Masayoshi Son in 1981 and is headquartered in Tokyo; it is primarily a tech-investment holding company, running a Vision Fund with over $100 billion under management, holding roughly 90% of chip designer Arm, and ranking among OpenAI's major shareholders. Its ties to robotics run deep: in 2012 it took control of Aldebaran, the French developer of NAO, and launched Pepper with it in 2014 (selling Aldebaran back off in 2022); in 2017 it bought Boston Dynamics from Google, then sold 80% of it to Hyundai Motor Group in 2020. Since 2025, SoftBank has treated robotics as part of a broader physical-AI strategy: in October it announced a $5.375 billion acquisition of ABB's robotics business (originally expected to close in mid-to-late 2026), and in January 2026 it led a $1.4 billion round in Skild AI, having earlier also invested in Agile Robots. Its name turns up often behind the large funding rounds in embodied-AI news.

ExampleIn January 2026, Skild AI raised $1.4 billion at a valuation above $14 billion, in a round led by SoftBank.

Also called

SBG, SoftBank

Related

Skild AI · Boston Dynamics · ABB Robotics · SoftBank Robotics Pepper · SoftBank Robotics NAO · Agile Robots

Sources

SoftBank Group - Wikipedia
Acquisition of ABB Ltd's Robotics Business（SoftBank Group 新闻稿，2025-10-08） (Chinese)
Skild AI Series C

As of

2026-01