SoftBank Prepares US IPO for AI Company Roze, Betting on Robots and Data Centers

SoftBank plans to create a separate US company, Roze, focused on AI robotics and data center construction, and then take it public. According to the Financial Times, later relayed by Bloomberg and Reuters, the Japanese holding company is targeting a valuation of up to $100 billion and could speed up the listing to as early as 2026.

What we know

This would be a standalone structure: SoftBank does not simply want to expand its existing portfolio, but to build a separate public asset around the two most expensive fronts of the AI race, robotics and computing infrastructure. The Financial Times, citing sources familiar with the plan, writes that the new company will be called Roze and will be based on the American capital market, not in Japan. Reuters adds that SoftBank declined to comment, so the project remains at the planning stage rather than a confirmed corporate announcement.

• the future company's name is Roze
• focus: AI robotics and data centers
• the listing is planned in the US
• target valuation: up to $100 billion
• the offering could come as early as 2026

Neither the structure of the assets that will go into Roze, nor the future company's revenue, nor the stake SoftBank is ready to sell to investors has been disclosed. This is an important caveat: the news reflects Masayoshi Son's strategic vision more than a nearly ready IPO prospectus. Even so, it shows that SoftBank wants to package AI infrastructure into a growth story the public market can understand. That is why the market currently treats Roze as a bet on the future, not as a ready issuer.

Why SoftBank is doing this

The Roze plan fits well with SoftBank's official strategy of recent months. In the holding's materials, AI is no longer described as a single bet on models but as a chain of four core components: AI chips, AI robots, AI data centers and energy. Roze combines two of these blocks in one asset. For Son, the logic is straightforward: if the future of AI depends not only on algorithms but on physical infrastructure, the most valuable layer of the market will belong not to applications but to those who build the computing and robotics foundation.

The context supports such a move. In March 2025, SoftBank agreed to buy Ampere for $6.5 billion, strengthening its position in AI computing.

In autumn 2025, the group announced the purchase of ABB's robotics business for $5.375 billion and explicitly named "Physical AI" as its next frontier. In December 2025, SoftBank signed a deal to buy DigitalBridge for $4 billion to expand its control over digital infrastructure, including data centers and networks.

Separately, the company already takes part in Stargate with OpenAI and Oracle: in September 2025, the partners reported five new sites in the US, almost 7 gigawatts of planned capacity and investments of more than $400 billion over the next three years. Against this backdrop, Roze looks less like a side experiment and more like an attempt to assemble scattered AI assets into one coherent story for the market.

According to Bloomberg, Son is pushing the project partly to offset the tens of billions of dollars SoftBank has already committed to AI. Put simply, the holding is looking not only for technological influence but also for future liquidity. That also explains why this is a separate IPO rather than an internal division.

Why the US

The choice of an American venue looks logical, but this is an inference from the context of the deal, not a direct statement from SoftBank. The US is where the largest AI data center construction projects, the most aggressive computing infrastructure budgets and the deepest capital market for tech listings are concentrated today. SoftBank is already strengthening its presence there through Ampere, Stargate and other infrastructure projects. If Roze does build its business around data centers, US jurisdiction gives it both access to customers and a growth story investors understand.

There is a second reason. A separate public company offers more flexibility than developing the whole business line inside a conglomerate. If the plan goes ahead, SoftBank could raise outside capital for a specific AI asset without mixing it with the holding's other bets, from Arm to OpenAI-related projects. That is more convenient for the market: investors would get a cleaner "robots plus computing infrastructure" story rather than yet another complex holding with dozens of overlapping interests.

What it means

The AI market is shifting more visibly from talk about models to a fight for the physical layer: chips, energy, data center construction and automation. If SoftBank takes Roze to an IPO, it will signal that infrastructure and robotics are becoming a standalone class of AI assets, one that investors are ready to pay tens of billions of dollars for.