SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has a new mega-project: a standalone AI and robotics company called ‘Roze,’ set to go public this year with a target valuation of $100 billion.
What Is Roze?
Roze would bundle existing assets from SoftBank’s portfolio: energy and land holdings, infrastructure assets, and most importantly ABB Robotics — one of the world’s leading industrial robotics suppliers, which SoftBank acquired last year.
The focus: building data centers with robots. Sounds like science fiction, but it’s the logical consequence of the current AI boom. Demand for compute is exploding (see Microsoft, Meta, Google), and data center construction is a bottleneck. Whoever can build them faster and cheaper has a massive advantage.
Why This Matters
The AI industry has an infrastructure problem. Everyone wants more compute, but data centers take years to build. SoftBank is betting that robotics can accelerate this process — while cutting operating costs at the same time.
If it works, Roze wouldn’t just be another AI startup but an enabler for the entire industry. Every company that needs more GPU capacity — from Anthropic to OpenAI to Google — would be a potential customer.
The Catch
A $100 billion valuation before the first quarterly report? That’s ambitious even for Son. There’s reportedly internal skepticism, and geopolitical uncertainties (Middle East conflicts, trade disputes) could push the timeline back.
But if anyone makes bets like these, it’s Masayoshi Son. The man backed Alibaba when it was still a small e-commerce startup.
Sources: CNBC - SoftBank Roze IPO | TechCrunch - SoftBank Robotics Data Centers