SoftBank looking to invest in Indian data centres and industrial robotics

SoftBank is looking for options to invest in Indian data centre and industrial robotics firms. As the Japanese technology conglomerate looks to step up bets on the infrastructure layer of artificial intelligence, it is evaluating deals in these sectors and may invest $75 million to $150 million per deal once discussions fructify. However, no specifics are available on the possible investments.

"SoftBank is looking at AI use cases with large market opportunities. They are chasing two themes in India currently — data centres and industrial robotics," a person close to the developments confirmed.

As of end March 2024, SoftBank has committed $5-billion investments focused on high-growth industries such as logistics, robotics and autonomous driving. Recent investments include Green Box, a joint venture with robotics company Symbotic which opened its first automated warehouse in California, and a billion-dollar-plus funding round in Wayve, an autonomous driving company.

The conglomerate has so far made investments and commitments of around $9 billion in AI-related companies in FY24, and sold holdings worth $22 billion during the period.

In October 2023, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son said that he believes artificial general intelligence (AGI), which is 10 times the sum total of all human intelligence, will be built in the next 10 years. While speaking at a company event, Son had also introduced the idea of Artificial Super Intelligence which, he claimed, would be 10,000 times more powerful than human intelligence and be a reality in the next 20 years