Rakuten wesentlich besser als Rocket

symphony.rakuten.com/...dustry-growth-report-2026-full-report

AST SpaceMobile's Next Chapter Is Finally Here

Jul 26, 2026 Quantryon Capital

Summary

AST SpaceMobile expects more than 45 satellite launches this year, backed by $3.5 billion in cash funding over 100 BlueBird satellites.

More than 60 mobile network operators serving over 3 billion subscribers support $1.2 billion of contracted commercial commitments and growing visibility.

Management reaffirmed 2026 revenue guidance of $150–$200 million while maintaining expectations that 2027 revenue could approach $1 billion.

Government communications and defense programs could become a meaningful second growth engine alongside commercial mobile broadband, expanding the long-term addressable market.

seekingalpha.com/article/...iles-next-chapter-is-finally-here

Rakuten TV Rakuten TV expands European FAST offering with 20 Sony channels

July 13, 2026

Rakuten TV has expanded its European FAST portfolio through a new agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment, launching 20 free ad-supported streaming channels across eight markets.

The rollout covers the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Nordics and the Netherlands, combining dedicated brand channels with genre-based services featuring Sony’s television catalogue.

The new line-up includes branded channels for Dragons’ Den, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Shark Tank, The Blacklist and Bewitched, alongside genre channels such as Comedy TV, Thriller TV and Faves. Programming includes series including Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, The Good Doctor, Charlie’s Angels, Married… with Children and The Nanny.

The agreement further strengthens Rakuten TV’s FAST strategy. The platform now offers more than 500 FAST channels, including over 100 owned and operated services, reaching more than 150 million households across 43 European territories.

www.broadbandtvnews.com/2026/07/13/...-with-20-sony-channels/

July 13, 2026

Rakuten TV has expanded its European FAST portfolio through a new agreement with Sony Pictures Entertainment, launching 20 free ad-supported streaming channels across eight markets.
The rollout covers the UK, Spain, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, the Nordics and the Netherlands, combining dedicated brand channels with genre-based services featuring Sony’s television catalogue.
The new line-up includes branded channels for Dragons’ Den, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Shark Tank, The Blacklist and Bewitched, alongside genre channels such as Comedy TV, Thriller TV and Faves. Programming includes series including Seinfeld, Breaking Bad, The Good Doctor, Charlie’s Angels, Married… with Children and The Nanny.

The agreement further strengthens Rakuten TV’s FAST strategy. The platform now offers more than 500 FAST channels, including over 100 owned and operated services, reaching more than 150 million households across 43 European territories.

www.broadbandtvnews.com/2026/07/13/...-with-20-sony-channels/

Growth with the Best Affiliate Marketing Platform

Looking to grow your business with affiliate marketing? In this video, we’ll show you how you can partner with Rakuten Advertising and get started in a few weeks. Build high-performiHow to Drive Business ng programs with Affiliate Intelligence by Rakuten Advertising, find the right partners with AI-backed Partnership Discovery, and implement a full-funnel strategy supported by our dedicated team of experts. Learn how to reach a global audience, deliver key data and metrics, and uncover new opportunities. Take the next step to see what affiliate really can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQoxel1-240&t=6s

The Japanese government’s funding of up to 148 billion yen (approx. 912–926 million US dollars) for the satellite project significantly improves Rakuten Group’s (TYO:4755) strategic and financial outlook in several areas:

Massive reduction in infrastructure costs: The subsidies will be disbursed over a three-year period. They are intended for the procurement of satellite equipment, the construction of ground stations, and the financing of rocket launches for the planned Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) network. This substantially lowers the financial burden on Rakuten’s mobile division.

Closing rural network gaps: Rakuten’s terrestrial mobile network lags behind its larger competitors. Through direct satellite connectivity for standard smartphones ("Direct-to-Cell") in partnership with AST SpaceMobile (NASDAQ:ASTS), Rakuten can achieve nationwide coverage in Japan—including remote regions and islands—starting in late 2026, without the need to erect costly ground-based transmission towers.

Competitiveness in economic security: While competitors KDDI, SoftBank, and NTT Docomo rely on SpaceX’s US-based Starlink system, Rakuten is building the first state-backed satellite system funded primarily with Japanese capital. This significantly strengthens Rakuten’s position regarding government contracts and disaster relief operations.

Regulatory advantage: The Ministry of Communications is paving the way for the project by authorizing satellite connections in the 700-megahertz band—a frequency Rakuten already utilizes for its mobile broadband service.

Overall, this funding secures the long-term expansion of Rakuten Mobile and enhances the profitability of the entire group by effectively socializing technological risks and investment costs.

Source: Google AI

The "Global Finance World's AI In Finance Awards" recognizes the critical role AI plays in the financial sector by partnering with editors from Global Finance magazines and CGI, who specializes in IT and business consulting and responsible AI implementation, to select outstanding banks in AI utilization.

About Global Finance Magazine
Global Finance Magazine (New York, USA) is a monthly magazine founded in 1987. It is subscribed to CEOs, CFOs, and heads of finance departments working at multinational corporations and financial institutions in 163 countries. Additionally, Global Finance has provided analysis and articles on international financial markets for over 30 years through its website.

Initiatives for AI Utilization at Rakuten Bank

Starting in 2026, to further promote AI utilization, we have established an AI Promotion Committee with participation from all departments, each pursuing the potential for AI use in their operations and sharing progress and case studies of AI promotion. Currently, we have launched over 60 AI projects and are working to expand revenue and reduce costs by utilizing AI across more than 400 operational challenges.

Specific use cases are as follows.

        1.§Optimizing
Financial Services through the Fusion of Data and AIRakuten Bank is advancing its financial services by leveraging AI that integrates and analyzes vast amounts of proprietary data. For small-amount card loan screening, we use our proprietary credit scoring model to precisely manage risk while providing loans to a wide range of customers. In marketing, we also use AI-based precise segment analysis to provide optimal proposals for each individual, pursuing improved customer satisfaction.

        2.§Customer support system utilizing AI: By utilizing AI chatbots utilizing
natural language processing (NLP) technology, we provide rapid customer support 24/7, 365 days a year. Complex inquiries are smoothly transferred to operators, and real-time AI support helps standardize response quality. By automatically generating response records by converting call records into text, we simultaneously promote improved customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

        3.§Optimizing
Business Processes with AI Rakuten Bank has established an environment where all employees can use the Rakuten Group's proprietary "Rakuten AI for Rakutenians," while expanding education and training, with all departments working to improve efficiency and improve AI-powered operations. "Rakuten AI for Rakutenians" is an AI tool for employees that integrates and improves accuracy of vast and diverse data obtained from various services offered by the Rakuten Group. Specifically, in addition to automating routine tasks, AI is actively being utilized for specialized tasks such as coding support and translation. By shortening processing times and improving operational accuracy, and shifting human resources to higher value-added tasks, the overall productivity of the organization is dramatically boosted.

Rakuten Bank will continue to apply cutting-edge AI technology to banking operations, contributing to improved convenience and new value creation in the fintech industry by providing services that go beyond conventional boundaries.

www.rakuten-bank.co.jp/press/2026/260724.html

Rakuten and Kyivstar field test Open RAN in Ukraine

Rakuten Symphony and Ukrainian operator Kyivstar are teaming up for Open RAN field trials around Kyiv, Ukraine.

July 27, 2026

The project will involve Rakuten Symphony providing a cloud-native Open RAN environment in Ukraine, and conducting validation testing “to facilitate the construction and operation of flexible, cost-efficient networks.”

The two firms are already collaborating and these demonstration tests in the country represent the next phase of that. They are also working on implementing OSS, cloud technologies and the broader Rakuten Ecosystem.

Previously they conducted lab testing of Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN and cloud solutions, which was about validating key features and interoperability in a 4G environment, and this next bit will involve expanding these capabilities to 4G/5G configurations and conducting field tests.

www.telecoms.com/operator-ecosystem/...st-open-ran-in-ukraine

Rakuten Symphony selected for METI grant to strengthen Ukraine’s telecom infrastructure with Open RAN

Jul 27, 2026

Open RAN demonstration in Ukraine enters next phase with field testing in collaboration with leading digital operator Kyivstar

Tokya, Japan – Rakuten Symphony, Inc. today announced its selection for a grant from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) under the FY2024 Supplementary Budget’s Subsidy Program for Future-Oriented Co-creation Projects with the Global South (Support for Ukraine’s Reconstruction and Strengthening Cooperation with Central and Eastern European Countries). Rakuten Symphony’s selection was made for its Demonstration Project for Strengthening Telecom Infrastructure with Virtualized Open RAN during the second round of grant applications.

Under the project, Rakuten Symphony will provide a cloud-native Open RAN environment in Ukraine and conduct validation testing to facilitate the construction and operation of flexible, cost-efficient networks. Rakuten Mobile will participate as a key collaborating partner.

Rakuten Symphony is already collaborating with Kyivstar, Ukraine’s largest telecommunications operator and a wholly owned subsidiary of VEON Ltd., to deploy Open RAN in Ukraine and is conducting demonstration tests in the country. The companies are also collaborating across OSS, cloud technologies and the broader Rakuten Ecosystem to accelerate next-generation network transformation*2. In the first phase of the project, the companies successfully completed lab testing of Rakuten Symphony’s Open RAN and cloud solutions, validating key features and interoperability in a 4G environment. The second phase will involve expanding these capabilities to 4G/5G configurations and conducting field tests.

www.telecomtv.com/content/...rastructure-with-open-ran-55963/

HP Japan customers can use Rakuten AI for Desktop on-device mode for intelligent, private and personalized workflows. Cloud mode connects users to Rakuten's specialized agents and the Rakuten Ecosystem. By reducing reliance on cloud services, customers gain seamless continuity offline with responsiveness, cost and privacy benefits.
“Talking with AI is fast becoming something people can't live without. Our vision is to make intelligence available wherever you are — online or offline, on a plane or in an emergency — so you have peace of mind that intelligence is always with you,” said Ting Cai, Chief AI & Data Officer, Rakuten Group. “Our development team has overcome significant technical challenges to reach this milestone, integrating the application, the model and the underlying hardware to bring our customers the latest technology with the robustness they expect. With Rakuten AI running locally on your device, we can leverage local context to get more done for you.”
“As AI becomes a natural part of everyday work and life, customers want experiences that are intelligent, secure and seamlessly integrated into the devices they use every day,” said Nobuki Okado, Managing Director, HP Japan. “Together with Rakuten, we're bringing hybrid AI to customers in Japan through an experience designed to help people work, create and collaborate more confidently. This collaboration demonstrates how AI PCs will become the foundation for the future of work by intelligently combining on-device and cloud AI.”
Today's announcement builds on the two companies' strategic collaboration announced in November 2025. By combining their strengths — HP's leading PC brand and innovative hardware and Rakuten's unique AI and ecosystem offerings — they intend to empower customers' daily life with AI-integrated devices and solutions.
With the launch of Rakuten AI for Desktop, HP PC users gain access to Rakuten AI's agentic capabilities. In addition to skills for daily tasks, it offers specialized Rakuten agents that can help complete everyday tasks like shopping, booking travel and managing Rakuten Points. Rakuten AI for Desktop acts as a gateway to over 70 Rakuten Ecosystem services and enhances daily life in Japan with language and cultural optimization.
Unlike traditional software pre-installation, Rakuten AI for Desktop is currently provided as an exclusive bundled offering with eligible HP PCs in Japan, enabling customers to activate the application after purchase and immediately begin using its AI capabilities. The bundled offering is currently exclusive to HP customers in Japan.
Availability
The Rakuten AI for Desktop offering is available beginning July 29, 2026, with eligible HP PCs for enterprise customers in Japan, with consumer availability to follow in October 2026.
Key Features of Rakuten AI for Desktop
Rakuten AI for Desktop users can switch between on-device and cloud-based services, ensuring high performance, data privacy, availability and cost-efficiency. For the first time, Rakuten AI is available with the on-device integration of Rakuten AI 7B ONNX, a special version of the Rakuten AI 7B large language model (LLM) optimized for HP PCs.
On-device Mode: Powered by Rakuten's efficient, Japanese-optimized LLM optimized for PCs, this mode offers users private, low latency AI on-device. HP Japan customers can use AI for rewriting, summarizing and translation with privacy and freedom from connectivity or cloud constraints.
Cloud Mode: Connects users to Rakuten's full suite of specialized agents and the Rakuten Ecosystem. This mode enables complex, real-time guidance from intent to action within a single interface for shopping, travel planning and booking, or navigating mobile subscriptions.
Streamlined Workflow Tools
Rakuten AI for Desktop integrates directly into the user's workspace to eliminate copy-pasting and reduce switching between browser tabs or multiple windows, offering a more frictionless desktop experience:
AI Chat Window: A central hub for interacting with Rakuten Ecosystem Agents, which manage queries across Rakuten Ichiba, Rakuten Travel, Rakuten Mobile, Rakuten Music, Rakuten Point Club and more.
Floating Icon and System Tray: A handy drag-and-drop tool that can be snapped to any part of the screen or the system tray, providing immediate access to AI assistance.
Contextual Action Bar: Provides automatic suggestions and an inline menu for quick execution of common tasks, including summarization, translation and text rewriting.
How to use Rakuten AI for Desktop
        1.§Click the Rakuten AI icon on the taskbar or Start menu to open the Rakuten AI for Desktop website.
        2.§Follow the website prompts to download the application.
        3.§Start application. Use cloud mode and on-device toggle to verify if the device supports on-device mode.
        4.§If verified, users can install on-device mode in the settings page for use.
For more information see the Rakuten AI for Desktop official site: ai.rakuten.co.jp/offers/hp
Developed by Rakuten and designed for AI PCs, Rakuten AI for Desktop is powered by Rakuten's efficient, Japanese-optimized large language models (LLMs) integrated directly into devices. Its on-device mode offers privacy by running sensitive AI tasks directly on local devices, significantly reducing cloud dependency and associated costs. With cloud mode, Rakuten AI provides specialized agents and seamless access to the Rakuten Ecosystem, enhancing productivity and daily life for users.
About Rakuten AI 7B
Rakuten AI 7B is a 7 billion parameter Japanese language foundation model developed by continually training Mistral-7B-v0.1, an open LLM from France-based AI startup Mistral AI. Training of the model was carried out on an in-house multi-node GPU cluster engineered by Rakuten to enable the rapid and scalable training of models on large, complex datasets. For HP PCs, Rakuten has developed a special version that is continually trained, fine-tuned and quantized from the base Rakuten AI 7B model.
Characteristics of the LLM
        1.§High performance through training on high-quality data
The models have been continually trained from the Mistral-7B-v0.1 model on English and Japanese internet-scale datasets. These datasets have been carefully curated and cleaned through an in-house multi-stage data filtering and annotation process to ensure the quality, contributing to the high performance of the models.
        2.§High efficiency through extended tokenizer
The models also use an extended tokenizer optimized for Japanese language characters. In the extended tokenizer, a single token now represents more characters than before, enabling cost-efficient text processing during model training as well as inference.

global.rakuten.com/corp/news/press/2026/0729_01.html

Japan-Based Rakuten Group BB Rating Affirmed On Slight Improvement In Performance And Finances; Outlook Remains Stable

Revenue growth for Rakuten Group's mobile business will help support a moderate improvement in business performance and financial results, largely in line with our previous expectations.

Stable creditworthiness for the company's financial business will continue to underpin the ratings.
We affirmed our 'BB' long-term issuer credit rating on Rakuten Group Inc.

The outlook remains stable based on our expectation that nonfinancial business results and key financial ratios will continue recovering moderately as mobile business losses decline.
TOKYO (S&P Global Ratings) July 29, 2026--S&P Global Ratings today took the rating actions listed above.

Rakuten Group's nonfinancial businesses will continue improving. The company's internet services business will in our view perform well on the back of its strong position. The mobile business should also continue improving.

We expect EBITDA in the mobile business to expand moderately. Subscriptions exceeded 10 million as of Dec. 31, 2025, up from 8.3 million a year earlier. EBITDA turned to profit in the same period when including contributions from Rakuten Mobile’s ecosystem. We expect Rakuten Group's mobile business to continue to offer low-priced plans and increase subscribers. It can do so by leveraging its strong customer base in its internet and financial businesses.

www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/...ype/HTML/id/3602086

S & P see’s  reorganisation of fintech business positive

Reorganizing Rakuten Group's fintech business would provide some credit support to the company. The company's credit card business had not been subject to bank regulations, but is now. The move should strengthen the financial base of the financial business as a whole and improve transparency in risk management. This will contribute positively to the company's creditworthiness.

Making greater use of Rakuten Bank, which has a rich deposit-funding base, may also help optimize funding costs for the entire fintech business. Stronger collaboration among fintech services could further bolster business foundations and foster growth.

www.spglobal.com/ratings/en/regulatory/...ype/HTML/id/3602086

Consolidated Operating Results   (Millions of yen) Six months ended June 30, 2026            
Operating revenue      Net operating revenue      Operating income      Ordinary income 
108,547                               97,515                               35,529                               35,706

 Consolidated Operating Results   (Millions of yen) Six months ended June 30, 2025            
Operating revenue      Net operating revenue      Operating income      Ordinary income 
70,627                                65,257                                 16,438                                16,124       

AST SpaceMobile locks in next launch for its mega satellites

Key Points

Satellite company AST SpaceMobile has set Aug. 5 as the launch date for its next three satellites.
The company is again using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket for the launch.

This brings the company closer to its goal of having 45-60 satellites in low Earth orbit this year.

optimism.rakuten.co.jp/?wovn=en

Our new security measures in Rakuten Mobile are far-reaching. We now enforce a lifecycle management process to verify third-party apps. New protocols protect data transmitted over the Open RAN network interfaces. Additional security controls protect the core radio units. Initial security requirements have been adopted for artificial intelligence/machine learning models. Vendors must now provide and attest to a Software Bill of Materials for supply chain security, and hardware devices must incorporate secure boot and other security assurances. A detailed explanation of the new security measures specified for Open RAN can be found here.
Let me acknowledge an obvious caveat: no security system is completely impenetrable. Vulnerabilities always remain. Breaches happen and security is a continuous process of identifying, assessing, and mitigating evolving threats rather than achieving absolute protection.
Even so, the results of our efforts are impressive. While hackers have exposed flaws in traditional networks, our platform was built with a security-first mindset to mitigate vulnerabilities. Traditionally, a few large vendors dominated mobile communications infrastructure, constructing expensive, vertical, top-down, proprietary systems in which they controlled both the software and hardware. Our Open RAN network is bottom-up, software-driven, running on commercial off-the-shelf servers, and powered via the cloud. It uses multiple vendors, mixing and matching them as needed.
While traditionalists equate the moniker Open with open to hackers, arguing that multiple vendors are inherently less secure than a single end-to-end vendor, our experience has shown that open technology can be as secure as – or more secure than – closed technology, provided it is deployed with robust security controls. Single-vendor deployments may introduce concentration risk, where the compromise of a widely deployed component or supplier can have broad operational consequences. As an example, the advanced cyber attackers like Salt Typhoon penetrated major US telecommunications companies – ultimately breaching no fewer than nine of the phone carriers and accessing Americans’ texts and calls in real time.
In contrast, open architecture allows operators to control what they put on their networks. No single vendor controls the system. With our Open RAN system, each vendor is responsible for securing their own components. Thanks to high transparency and component-level visibility, it is considerably easier for operators to identify, isolate, and remediate affected components. To guard against potential vulnerabilities across our diverse supplier ecosystem, we have adopted a Zero Trust architecture – grounded in the principle of “Never trust, always verify.” No component or vendor is inherently trusted; every interaction is authenticated and authorized.
Our supply chain is transparent – we work to ensure the integrity of all key components through Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs), secure boot, and cryptographic signing. This open architecture makes it significantly easier to resolve many issues than in traditional, proprietary systems, by switching out software or hardware. By eliminating proprietary ‘black boxes’, our open interfaces provide transparency into system components, enabling more effective security validation and lifecycle management. This should be music to the ears of security hawks – and reassure our over 10 million Japanese customers.