By Echo Wang and Milana Vinn
NEW YORK, May 26 (Reuters) – SoftBank Group has tapped banks to prepare initial public offerings for its energy and infrastructure developer SB Energy and its planned autonomous robotics spinout Roze, as founder Masayoshi Son ramps up the Japanese group’s push into artificial intelligence infrastructure amid strong investor appetite for companies underpinning AI buildout, according to two people familiar with the matter.
SoftBank has hired JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Citi and Mizuho for SB Energy’s IPO, which could come as early as September, the sources said. SB Energy could seek a valuation of more than $50 billion in its market debut, the people said.
At the same time, SoftBank has tapped Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Mizuho and Morgan Stanley for the IPO of its autonomous robotics company Roze, which will focus on building data centers and using robotics to improve the efficiency of AI infrastructure construction and is targeting a similar time frame, the sources added.
2026 is shaping up as a major year for IPOs, with a wave of mega AI listings including SpaceX, Anthropic and OpenAI expected to test investor appetite for large new issues.
The Financial Times reported in April that SoftBank was exploring a roughly $100 billion AI and robotics spinoff and taking it public under the name Roze.
BROADENING AI INVESTMENT ENTHUSIASM
Investors have been piling into companies tied to the artificial intelligence boom, broadening enthusiasm beyond chipmakers and software firms to businesses supplying the infrastructure needed to support AI’s rapid expansion.
The IPO plans reflect how the artificial intelligence boom is expanding beyond traditional data centers into so-called picks-and-shovels businesses that support the ecosystem — from power generation and energy supply to machines that can help build and run next-generation facilities.
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Mizuho declined to comment. SoftBank, Morgan Stanley and Citi did not respond to requests for comment.
SB Energy, a SoftBank-backed energy and infrastructure developer focused on pairing power generation with data centers to help address AI’s growing energy constraints, has emerged as an important partner in the buildout of artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company is partnering with OpenAI and SoftBank on the $500 billion Stargate initiative and said last week it plans to confidentially submit a draft registration statement for an IPO.
SB Energy has been selected to build and operate a 1.2-gigawatt data center campus in Texas to support OpenAI’s computing needs, with integrated solar and battery storage designed to power the facilities. OpenAI has also committed $500 million to SB Energy as part of a joint $1 billion investment with SoftBank.
Roze is a planned SoftBank spinoff that aims to deploy autonomous robotics to speed up the construction of large-scale AI infrastructure, including data centers, helping address labor and construction bottlenecks as demand for AI capacity surges. It could become one of the largest AI-related listings if it proceeds with the IPO, analysts have said.
(Reporting by Echo Wang and Milana Vinn in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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