{"id":3441,"date":"2026-02-12T21:25:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/3441\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T21:25:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T21:25:23","slug":"softbank-to-buy-abb-robotics-unit-for-5-4-billion-in-ai-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/3441\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank to buy ABB robotics unit for $5.4 billion in AI push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An ABB robot on a production line at the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, UK.<\/p>\n<p>Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/9984.T-JP\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SoftBank Group<\/a> on Monday said it had agreed to buy the robotics division of Swiss engineering firm ABB for $5.4 billion, as the Japanese giant looks to bolster its artificial intelligence plays.<\/p>\n<p>The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval globally, means <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/quotes\/ABB.N-CH\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABB<\/a> will no longer look to spin off its robotics business as a separately listed company.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;SoftBank&#8217;s next frontier is Physical AI. Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics \u2014 driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward,&#8221; Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Artificial Super Intelligence, or ASI, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2024\/06\/21\/softbank-ceo-predicts-ai-that-is-10000-times-smarter-than-humans-.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Son&#8217;s idea of AI<\/a> that is 10,000 times smarter than humans.<\/p>\n<p>Son has looked to position <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2025\/08\/11\/softbank-founder-son-makes-his-biggest-bet-by-staking-the-future-on-ai.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">SoftBank at the center of the potential AI boom<\/a> through investments and acquisitions in different areas of technology. SoftBank owns chip designer Arm, for example, and has a major stake in OpenAI.<\/p>\n<p>SoftBank already has some robot-related investments, including AutoStore Holdings and Agile Robots.<\/p>\n<p>The Japanese conglomerate is not new to robotics. In 2012, SoftBank took a majority stake in a French company called Aldebaran. Two years later, the two companies launched a humanoid robot called Pepper \u2014 a bet that ultimately flopped, but robotics has now re-emerged as a key focus for the Japanese giant.<\/p>\n<p>Morten Wierod, who became CEO of ABB in August 2024, has pushed the spin-off of the company&#8217;s robotics unit as a strategic move.<\/p>\n<p>ABB said in a statement that the sale &#8220;will create immediate value to ABB shareholders.&#8221; The company said it will use the proceeds from the transaction &#8220;in line with its well-established capital allocation principles.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>ABB said it expected cash proceeds of approximately $5.3 billion. The expected separation cost is around $200 million, about half of which is already in ABB&#8217;s 2025 guidance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An ABB robot on a production line at the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, UK. Bloomberg |&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[232,1159,1042,881,166,3231,3230],"class_list":{"0":"post-3441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-abb","8":"tag-abb","9":"tag-abb-ltd","10":"tag-breaking-news","11":"tag-breaking-news-technology","12":"tag-business-news","13":"tag-masayoshi-son","14":"tag-softbank-group-corp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}