SoftBank's Masayoshi Son Pushes AI Integration with New Entity "Roze," Targeting 2026 U.S. IPO and $

SoftBank Group Corp. (SFTBY.US) plans to establish and list an independent Artificial Intelligence robotics and data center company in the United States, named Roze. This move signals that founder Masayoshi Son is accelerating the integration of his sprawling AI empire, aiming to transform the group's land resources, power infrastructure, and cutting-edge robotics Technology into highly liquid, premium assets through capital market maneuvers. The Japanese Investment giant is targeting an IPO for Roze within this year, with a goal Valuation of $100 billion.

From a strategic perspective, Roze's formation is not a simple spin-off of a single business but a deep integration of SoftBank's AI physical infrastructure. Through this new platform, Son seeks to "package" the group's fRAGmented investments in AI hardware, energy supply, and automation over recent years, thereby constructing a complete, closed-loop AI ecosystem.

To support this ambitioUS expansion plan, SoftBank has poured tens of billions of dollars into investments over the past year, including completing an APProximately $41 billion equity investment in OpenAI and spending a fortune to acquire ABB's robotics unit, striving to build comprehensive advantages spanning from underlying computing power to terminal applications in the global AI race.

However, Son's envisioned spin-off will face scrutiny over the sustainability of the global Data Center construction boom—a historic expansion led by companies like Meta and Amazon that is drawing mounting concern. SoftBank is making an especially large bet on openai, while simultaneously attempting to position Arm Holdings as a potential competitor to NVIDIA.

In terms of financial engineering, SoftBank is adopting an aggressive leverage strategy to support Roze's incubation and IPO process. Given the immense capital expenditure required in the AI sector, the group recently raised approximately $10 billion in margin loans by pledging its stake in OpenAI.

This financing method not only reflects SoftBank's confidence in the valuation of its core holdings but also reveals the pressure to recoup funds and realize profit growth quickly through Roze's IPO. The market broadly expects Roze's path to listing to mirror the successful model of Arm, in which SoftBank retains a majority stake to maintain control while using the public market valuation to unlock the latent value of its overall investment portfolio.

This ACTion also mirrors the current global capital market's feverish demand for "Physical AI" infrastructure. As the consumption of computing power and energy by large AI models grows exponentially, the data center and energy management businesses encompassed by Roze are directly in the crosscurrents of a major industry trend.

Meanwhile, the 2026 U.S. public market is expected to welcome several hard-tech giants, including SpaceX and anthropic. Roze's entry will undoubtedly further stoke the financing frenzy in the AI sector. For SoftBank, Roze is not only a new valuation growth point but also a pivotal maneuver in its transformation into a pure-play AI investment platform and an effort to balance previous massive cash outlays.

It is understood that SoftBank insiders have voiced doubts regarding Roze's valuation and IPO timetable due to uncertainties stemming from the Middle East conflict. Details, including the exact stake to be offered in the listing, have yet to be finalized. Nonetheless, SoftBank has continued to ramp up its investments in the AI space in recent months.

Specific moves include: the acquisition of Private Equity firm DigitalBridge Group for $3billion,whichholdsdigitalinfrastructureassetslikeAtlasEdge,DataBank,Switch,andVantageDataCenters;theearlierpurchaseofU\mathrm{.}S\mathrm{.}chipdesigncompanyAmpereComputingfor$6.5 billion; and the acquisition of ABB's robotics division for $5.4 billion.

SoftBank had previously pledged to join forces with OpenAI, Oracle, and Abu Dhabi's MGX on the $500billionStargateprojecttobuilddatacentersacrosstheU\mathrm{.}S\mathrm{.}Additionally,thegrouphadindependentlysoughttoacquiredatacenteroperatorSwitchforroughly$50 billion, though those negotiations were terminated earlier this year.