“We will launch a counter-offensive soon.” SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son appeared again at the company’s earnings conference and said, “I hope SoftBank can lead the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.”

In the view of the industry, Sun’s remarks indicate that it will begin a “large-scale counterattack.” The latest news pointed out that Sun Zhengyi’s latest investment object is a robotics company.

The first investment went to Telexistence

Japanese robotics startup Telexistence said it has raised $170 million in Series B funding, Investors include SoftBank, Airbus Venture Capital Fund, GLP’s Monoful Partners, KDDI Open Innovation Investment Fund (a fund set up by Foxconn and CTBC Financial Holdings), and Japan’s Globis Capital Partners. In addition to this funding, Telexistence also announced a strategic partnership with SoftBank Robotics Group, a unit of SoftBank Group, to accelerate its commercialization in North America.

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Founded in 2017, Telexistence develops AI-powered robotic arms for the retail and logistics industries. According to public information, the company has raised nearly $200 million. Jin Tomioka, CEO of Telexistence, said in a statement that the company would use the newly raised funds to strengthen its workforce globally.

Last year, Telexistence said it would deploy robots in 300 Familymart convenience stores across Japan. Just recently, it was revealed that Telexistence has entered into a partnership with Foxconn to mass-produce its next-generation robot model, GHOST.

In recent years, many startups in the field of robotics in Japan have been sought after by the market. In the first half of this year, Japanese robotics startup LexxPluss announced that it received 1.45 billion yen (equivalent to about $10.7 million) in series A financing, with a valuation of 5.26 billion yen (equivalent to about $38.8 million). The round was led by Drone Fund with participation from SOSV’s HAX, Incubate Fund, SBI Investment and DBJ Capital.