Rakuten¡¯s chief dismissed skeptics who call the Japanese e-commerce pioneer¡¯s mobile foray a mistake and said the telecom arm is central for future growth through artificial intelligence.
A decision to enter Japan¡¯s cutthroat wireless market has saddled Rakuten with four years of losses, weighing on its cash-churning online shopping mall and finance operations. But that mobile arm and its 8 million-plus users help train an AI poised to expand the conglomerate¡¯s business, according to billionaire founder Hiroshi Mikitani.
The amount of exclusive data Rakuten gathers from its users is ¡°extremely powerful,¡± Mikitani said in an interview. ¡°We have no intent to compete against OpenAI or Google. But we will actively build a more vertically integrated, specialized AI.¡±
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.