Boston Dynamics is now fully owned by Hyundai. You might remember this firm for their advanced robotics demos over the years. “Hyundai Motor Group is acquiring SoftBank’s remaining 9.65% stake in Boston Dynamics for $325 million, completing its full ownership […]
This is about the recently-defunct Softbank-backed construction company. “I worked at Katerra for 2.5 years, from early 2018 to the end of 2020, and had a first-hand look at how a company that seemed so promising ended up where it […]
Ben Hunt: “I think that the collapse over the past week of Greensill Capital has a lot of systemic risk embedded within it, particularly as the fraudulent deals between Greensill and its major sponsors – Softbank and Credit Suisse – […]
The best-funded online retailer that aimed to cut out brand premiums and sell everything direct-to-consumer has shut down. They had raised $290 million, mostly from SoftBank, but couldn’t get the economics of the business to work. Some of the investment […]
The real-estate company with a nice patina of tech has been in the news a lot lately because of their massive funding from SoftBank and eye-popping valuation. Recently I found great articles on the bull case for the business and the bear case on […]
The Economist published the interesting tale of SoftBank’s $100 Billion Vision Fund, and its leader Masayoshi Son. He bet big during the first internet bubble and lost almost everything. Now’s he’s back and bigger than ever. | learn more
Vertically integrated construction has been tried before, but hasn’t really worked in a meaningful way. Why is this a big deal? Because construction is a terribly inefficient industry that affects all of us who don’t live in a cave. Katerra […]
It cleans floors at a top speed of 2.5 MPH, and it’s made by a company called Brain Corporation. Softbank’s Vision Fund led an investment into the company earlier this year. | learn more
These days, SoftBank’s outsized investments in tech companies regularly make the news. The uniting concept behind them all is less apparent, however. This NYT article helps put them in context – the plan is to get ahead of, and profit […]
I’ve written about vertical farm startup Plenty before, and now that they’ve raised an additional $200MM from SoftBank, it’s time for another look at their progress and vision. Reminder: “All told, Plenty says, its technology can yield as much as […]