SoftBank Corp.
About
About SoftBank Corp.
SoftBank Corp. operates telecommunications, enterprise services and AI infrastructure in Japan. Its physical-AI work uses GPU computing, data processing and simulation to help developers train and evaluate models for robots. The listed operating company is distinct from SoftBank Group and SoftBank Robotics Group, although it works within the wider SoftBank corporate group.
Its AI Data Center GPU Cloud combines Japan-based accelerated computing with software for managing shared GPU resources and AI workloads. A beta service began in May 2026, ahead of a planned October commercial launch. With Yaskawa Electric and NVIDIA technology, SoftBank has demonstrated a workflow that collects robot data, generates synthetic examples, trains models, checks them in simulation and transfers them to physical robots. The demonstrated application handled deformable wire harnesses; broader industrial adoption remains a separate development and deployment step.
Observed use
- DRU Pod with MQ-9B SeaGuardian
Evaluation - Mounted - A Japan Coast Guard MQ-9B SeaGuardian carried SoftBank’s DRU Pod during airborne mobile-network verification off Kochi, Japan.
Source
Supply
Supply chain relationships
- General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
Outbound - Communications - SoftBank manufactured the DRU communications pod mounted on a GA-ASI MQ-9B SeaGuardian for a 2026 flight trial
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Financials
- 9434.T - TSE - JPY
Team
- Junichi Miyakawa - President and Chief Executive Officer
Resources
Curated durable documents and official technical references.
- AI-RAN: Telecom Infrastructure for the Age of AI — December 2024
PDF · Historical AI-RAN architecture; December 2024 · SoftBank Corp.
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Timeline
Events
- 2026-10-02 - Demonstration - SoftBank verifies airborne mobile coverage using MQ-9B SeaGuardian
The aircraft flew at 3,000 metres and provided ground coverage exceeding 5 kilometres in diameter. Outdoor measurements reached 20 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink using 5 MHz bandwidth. SoftBank built the pod to GA-ASI design and quality requirements; gimballed antennas compensated for aircraft motion.
Source - 2026-07-13 - Demonstration - Yaskawa validates MOTOMAN NEXT with SoftBank AI cloud
The system stably manipulated wire harnesses, whose changing shape and grasp position complicate conventional robot control. The workflow connects collection of robot motion data with AI training, evaluation and deployment back to the hardware. SoftBank’s GPU cloud provides the development environment, with NVIDIA supporting the toolchain.
Source - 2026-05-12 - Award - SoftBank Corp., AIST and Mitsubishi Electric win AIRoA robot-model competition
Six teams trained robot models using an AIRoA dataset containing tens of thousands of hours of robot-motion data. The winning team automatically assessed and selected training sequences, then fine-tuned its model on the curated data. Evaluation included everyday manipulation such as handling food with utensils and placing clothing on hangers.
Source - 2026-02-27 - Demonstration - SoftBank and Ericsson demonstrate AI-RAN control for physical AI
The system dynamically switches AI processing between the robot and an AI-RAN multi-access edge-computing platform. Ericsson network slicing and priority handling adjust connectivity to latency, throughput and reliability requirements. The work targets future manufacturing, logistics and infrastructure-maintenance use cases.
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Relations
Relationships
- Ericsson
Joint R&d; Proof Of Concept - SoftBank Corp. and Ericsson collaborate on AI-RAN research and demonstrated dynamic robot AI offloading in a 2026 proof of concept.
- Yaskawa Electric Corporation
Verified Infrastructure Integration - Yaskawa and SoftBank Corp. validated MOTOMAN NEXT deformable-object handling using SoftBank Corp.’s AI Data Center GPU Cloud.
- SoftBank Group
Indirect Parent; Direct Shareholder Is Softbank Group Japan Corporation - SoftBank Corp. is a separately listed subsidiary of SoftBank Group, held through SoftBank Group Japan Corporation.
Context
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Shared workflows
Context tags
- IoT networking and edge supplier - Peer Group - SoftBank Corp. develops AI-RAN edge computing and differentiated-connectivity architectures for robots.
- IoT edge connectivity - Workflow - SoftBank Corp. develops AI-RAN edge computing and differentiated-connectivity architectures for robots.
- Physical AI compute - Stack Layer - SoftBank Corp. develops AI-RAN edge computing and differentiated-connectivity architectures for robots.