Alibaba and Foxconn have invested in Pepper and also become 20 percent partner each with this investment.
Latest Alibaba news is regarding the investment that the Chinese e-commerce giant has done in SoftBank. We hope you remember Pepper, the robot that had been unveiled by the SoftBank last year. The weekend is going to see the sale of Pepper in Japan. However, before the launch of the robot, the company has revealed that Foxconn, the manufacturer and Alibaba have invested in its robotic division. The investment is stated to be $118 million each. This deal has provided both the companies a 20 percent share each in the SoftBank Robotics Holdings which is also known as SBRH with the dominant 60 percent stake of SoftBank being retained.
The announcement by the company stated that Chinese e-commerce giant and Foxconn are aimed to build the structure that can bring together Pepper and also businesses pertaining to robots and bring them to the global markets, also to cooperate with each other to spread and develop the industry of robots across the globe.
SoftBank obviously does not have shortage of money, since the company has built quite a portfolio regarding e-commerce investments in Asia. However, the two partners that it brings to the board come with the strategy, know-how and also the global networks with them. Therefore, it is safe to assume that Pepper shall dominate the real world, or to be an integral part of helping the way towards international scale.
Alibaba news reports that Pepper is a robot manufactured by Foxconn. It is a household robot initially. There are 1,000 models that have been made available by SoftBank for early consumers that are willing to buy the robot and put it in their home. It shall be of 198,000 JPY which is approximately $1,600. There is a monthly fee to which the customers are subjected to, which is of 24,000 JPY, approximately $200 for the three year contract.
CEO of SoftBank has expressed that this is just the beginning and the business version of robot shall come in the last months of this year. The canned comments coming for Terry Gou, CEO of Foxconn and Jack Ma express that this investment is leading to the one on robotics field and not just Pepper.
Gou has already been known for heavy investments in robotics in order to automate the Foxconn’s huge parts of production processes and also is in partnership with Google. The CEO believes that the company should invest in innovation and also to deliver the cutting edge solutions to the customers.
Initially the world sees Pepper working with the household chores that will assist the elderly in Japan or help in businesses. Nestlé makes use of robot in order to sell the coffee in Tokyo.
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