KDDI's Buffmee and SoftBank's GaranAI launched in July 2026 on the same premise: use only licensed material, meter how much gets used, and pay publishers back. One sells to readers, the other to AI developers.
From mid-August 2026 SoftBank will fly a 65-metre helium airship from New Mexico across the Pacific and hold it about 20 km above Japan, testing voice, SMS and data from a flying base station that covers up to 200 km across. Commercial service is targeted from 2027. Here is how it differs from satellite direct-to-phone, why Loon died, and the business problem SoftBank has not solved.
What is NTT, one of Japan's largest telecom conglomerates, really building behind a decade of re-consolidation and its coming split of Docomo? We lay out the facts, then predict the 'final form' that emerges and the backbone it plans to earn from, comparing it with AT&T's failed media bet, SoftBank's reinvention, and India's Reliance playbook to find the real key to whether it works.
Free-space optics sends data on beams of light without cable. The idea dates back to Bell's 1880 photophone. Here is why a 140-year niche technology is now moving toward disaster recovery and remote connectivity, from Taara to Japan's NEC and NICT.
SoftBank Group has posted a record 5 trillion yen ($32 billion) net profit for the fiscal year ended March 2026, becoming the first Japanese company to ever cross the 5 trillion yen line. We unpack the 6.7 trillion yen OpenAI windfall, the Vision Fund comeback, the role of Arm as collateral, and how the figure stacks up against US Big Tech.
Japan's next-gen supercomputer Fugaku NEXT bets against the cooling consensus: warming water above 30°C to cool AI servers and cutting cooling power by 20%. It may also adopt 'ZAM,' a new memory developed by SoftBank and Intel that stands DRAM chips on edge with magnetic-field coupling. Why Japan is choosing efficiency over the gigawatt-scale arms race that defines US Frontier and El Capitan.
JBIC and Japan's three megabanks signed $2.221 billion in loans for the first three projects of a $550 billion US investment ceiling, the price Tokyo paid to bring Trump's tariffs down to 15%. The deal, the dollar-funding crunch, and what changed when the Supreme Court ruled IEEPA tariffs unlawful in February 2026.
SoftBank Group plans to spin off and list 'Roze,' an AI and robotics company, on US markets at a target valuation of $100 billion. We unpack Masayoshi Son's strategy in the context of Stargate, his OpenAI commitments, how Japanese tech compares to US and Chinese giants, and the Middle East risk hanging over the timing.
On April 23, 2026, the Nikkei 225 crossed 60,000 intraday for the first time in history. We compare this milestone with the 1989 bubble peak at 38,915 yen, examining USD-based performance, the foreign ownership shift from 5% to 32.4%, the PER drop from 60x to 16x, and the heavy concentration in just a handful of AI and semiconductor stocks like SoftBank Group, which surged 9.6%.
SoftBank, NEC, Honda, and Sony have established a new company to develop Japan's own AI foundation model, backed by $6.3 billion in government support over five years. Instead of competing head-on with US and Chinese tech giants in general-purpose AI, Japan is betting on 'Physical AI', AI that controls robots and factory equipment using the country's deep manufacturing expertise.
SoftBank Group is betting big on Physical AI, merging telecom infrastructure with robotics. From its $5.4B ABB acquisition to AI-RAN partnerships with NVIDIA, Arm, and Yaskawa, here's how Japan's tech giant plans to make robots think and move in real time.
Maya Kawana, eldest daughter of SoftBank's Masayoshi Son, has become CEO of biotech startup Spiber after a private restructuring left roughly ¥36 billion in debt with the old entity. From Goldman Sachs to spider silk, we explore her rebuilding plan, the biomaterials race, and what this means for Japan's deep-tech ecosystem.
Microsoft announced a $10 billion investment in Japan by 2029 to expand AI data centers, strengthen cybersecurity, and train 1 million engineers. We explore the partnerships with SoftBank and Sakura Internet, Japan's sovereign AI strategy, and why US tech giants are racing to invest across Asia.
SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son has announced a $500 billion AI data center campus at a former uranium enrichment site in Ohio—the largest single-site investment in history. With 21 Japanese and American companies involved and 9.2 GW of gas-fired power, this project reshapes the global AI infrastructure race. Here's what Japan thinks.
Kioxia has developed foundational 3D DRAM technology using IGZO oxide semiconductors, signaling the NAND-only maker's bold entry into the DRAM market. Behind this challenge: exploding AI demand and the physical limits of current memory. We break down the competition with Samsung, SK hynix, and China's CXMT.
PayPay, Japan's dominant mobile payment app with 73 million users, listed on Nasdaq on March 12, 2026 at $16 per share — below its initial range. Backed by cornerstone investors including ADIA, Visa, and Qatar Holding, it's the largest US IPO by a Japanese firm in a decade. We analyze Japan's cashless revolution and how PayPay compares to global rivals like Alipay and GrabPay.
SoftBank-backed PayPay listed on the Nasdaq on March 12, 2026. It priced at $16 per ADS, below its $17-20 range, for a market cap of about $10.7 billion, then opened at $19 and closed the next day at $21.14, worth roughly $14.1 billion. Visa, the Qatar Investment Authority and ADIA committed up to $220 million combined as cornerstone investors. The plan: a dual QR and NFC wallet aimed at America's $2 trillion cash market.
Japan reveals the full picture of its Rapidus investment scheme: becoming top shareholder with just 10% voting rights, holding golden shares with veto power, and a mechanism to seize majority control if finances deteriorate. We compare Japan's $19B commitment with the US CHIPS Act and EU Chips Act, and examine whether Rapidus can realistically mass-produce 2nm chips by 2027.
Murata Manufacturing, SoftBank, and CC-Link Partner Association achieved the world's first TSN over 5G connectivity demonstration by a telecom operator, reaching an average time synchronization accuracy of 122 nanoseconds, over 7x better than the international standard requires. A major step toward wireless smart factories and Physical AI.
Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has joined the AI-RAN Alliance, an international consortium turning cell towers into AI processing hubs. With SoftBank, NVIDIA, Samsung, and other tech giants on board, this move signals Japan's commitment to distributed AI infrastructure and its strategic positioning in the US-China tech race heading into the 6G era.