Softbank actually has numerous business units ranging from reselling/distribution of various products to monetizing telco data.

I would be careful to even call them just a telco.

I can say for a fact they have other robotics efforts as well. Yes they have not had the best luck in monetizing them.

Ironically, we are associated with some of their newer R&D efforts in robotics: https://skymind.ai/press/softbank

I can say they have not made ideal decisions in a lot of areas, but I wouldn't count them out based on 1 bad robot. They are a lot more diverse than that.

Source: I have softbank as a customer, have dealt with numerous executives here, and actually live in japan. I don't just read the news.