SoftBank Group Corp. has suspended production of its Pepper robot, shelving for now a project Masayoshi Son once personally championed as a symbol of his conglomerate’s ambitions in AI and technology.
The Japanese company halted assembly of the ¥198,000 ($1,790) robot in August after inventory piled up, but may decide to resume production in the future, a SoftBank spokeswoman said.
The firm is now in discussions with its French robotics unit, which employs about 330 people, on potential job reductions, she added. According to an earlier report that cited unidentified sources, SoftBank plans to cut roughly 50% of those positions in France by September.