From March 2 to 5, MWC Barcelona 2026 (MWC26), one of the world's largest mobile-related exhibitions, welcomed nearly 105,000 attendees from 207 countries and territories to Barcelona, Spain. According to the GSMA, the organizer of MWC26, AI dominated the event from multiple angles: sovereign AI and the role operators play in building it, Physical AI bringing robots and smart devices to life on the showfloor, and the growing importance of cross-industry collaboration.
SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) presented its own joint initiatives at partner booths, and its group companies were out in full force at the event.
- Evolving telecom infrastructure for the AI era
At MWC26, SoftBank unveiled its strategy to transition from a traditional carrier that simply moves data—raw, uninterpreted data packets—to an AI-native infrastructure provider that enables distributed AI workloads across edge and cloud environments. Central to this shift is SoftBank’s Telco AI Cloud vision, which sees the communications network evolve into a central nervous system—an active computation platform that operates AI models directly within the infrastructure.
- Enabling Physical AI
Key to the Telco AI Cloud announcement was SoftBank's focus on Physical AI— the convergence of AI with the physical world of robotics. Unlike traditional centralized clouds, Telco AI Cloud brings intelligence to the edge, enabling robots to make split-second decisions based on sensor data, performing complex behaviors that their onboard hardware alone could not support independently.
SoftBank successfully demonstrated a joint proof-of-concept with Ericsson that showcased how AI-RAN networks can dynamically optimize connectivity for robots, ensuring the stability required to work safely alongside humans in dynamic environments.
- Collaborating across industries
At MWC26, SoftBank showed how it is actively expanding its ecosystem of partners to accelerate the global adoption of its AI-RAN technologies. SoftBank unveiled a collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., where it is deploying its ‘AITRAS’ platform in edge data center environments to bring secure AI inference to factory floors and help address labor shortages through automation.
To foster global innovation, SoftBank announced it open-sourced the Dynamic Scoring Framework (DSF), a core function of the AITRAS Orchestrator, SoftBank's AI-RAN product. By sharing this technology with the open-source community, SoftBank is aiming to lower barriers to entry for AI-RAN adoption, inviting developers worldwide to contribute to a more efficient and accessible global infrastructure.
For more information on these initiatives, see this press release.
- Non-terrestrial networks enabling vehicle connectivity
Cubic³, a SoftBank Corp. group company that delivers advanced software-defined vehicle (SDV) solutions, came to MWC26 with breakthroughs for vehicle connectivity.
In partnership with Viasat and Qualcomm, and with support from Fraunhofer IIS, Cubic³ demonstrated the world’s first live, real-time satellite voice call for connected vehicles over a 3GPP-compliant non-terrestrial network.
At the event, Cubic³ and its partner Skylo also unveiled what the companies are calling the world’s first automotive-grade connectivity solution that combines cellular and satellite networks through a single SIM, validated for commercial deployment.
For more information on Cubic³’s presence at MWC26, see this blog post.
(Posted on March 11, 2026)
by SoftBank News Editors
