SoftBank is planning to create and list an AI and robotics company called **Roze** in the US, with executives eyeing a valuation that could reach **$100bn**. Founder Masayoshi Son wants to list as soon as this year to offset spending commitments across the conglomerate's portfolio that run into the tens of billions of dollars, including its huge pledges to OpenAI. SoftBank plans to hold an analyst day at a Texas data centre in July to promote the IPO. The group has not finalised how big a stake of Roze it will sell, but it has previously kept a majority share — it still owns nearly **90%** of UK chip designer Arm, which listed in 2023.

Roze will be involved in building data centres. ABB Robotics, which SoftBank agreed to buy last year, could play a critical role once the deal closes, alongside existing group assets including land and infrastructure. SoftBank is also building its own data centres, with a large-scale project in Ohio powered by a **$33bn** gas power plant operated by SoftBank and funded by the Japanese government via a US trade deal. Son hopes to replicate that model in other US states. The group's $30bn additional investment in OpenAI is being deployed in parallel, but the exposure is making some lieutenants nervous and stretching the balance sheet.

Some inside SoftBank are sceptical about the valuation and the proposed timeline given the geopolitical and economic uncertainty after Trump's strikes on Iran. US public markets may also have to absorb three of the largest IPOs ever this year — Elon Musk's SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI — pulling demand thin. SoftBank's share price was already volatile: it hit a record high last October before falling close to **45%** by March, recovered most of that ground, then fell sharply again in recent days on renewed worries about OpenAI's growth. OpenAI's IPO is central to Son's plan to reduce leverage, but the start-up is facing growing competition from Google and Anthropic. Source: Financial Times, 30 April 2026, David Keohane and Leo Lewis.