{"id":482379,"date":"2025-10-08T07:34:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:34:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482379\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T07:34:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T07:34:14","slug":"softbank-to-buy-abb-robotics-unit-for-5-4-billion-in-ai-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482379\/","title":{"rendered":"SoftBank to buy ABB robotics unit for $5.4 billion in AI push"},"content":{"rendered":"

An ABB robot on a production line at the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed, UK.<\/p>\n

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images<\/p>\n

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

The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval globally, means ABB<\/a> will no longer look to spin off its robotics business as a separately listed company.<\/p>\n

“SoftBank’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,” Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Artificial Super Intelligence, or ASI, is Son’s idea of AI<\/a> that is 10,000 times smarter than humans.<\/p>\n

Son has looked to position 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

SoftBank already has some robot-related investments, including AutoStore Holdings and Agile Robots.<\/p>\n

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

Morten Wierod, who became CEO of ABB in August 2024, has pushed the spin-off of the company’s robotics unit as a strategic move.<\/p>\n

ABB said in a statement that the sale “will create immediate value to ABB shareholders.” The company said it will use the proceeds from the transaction “in line with its well-established capital allocation principles.”<\/p>\n

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’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 |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3163],"tags":[104038,323,1942,1500,3083,3085,88492,159979,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-482379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-abb-ltd","9":"tag-ai","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-technology","13":"tag-business-news","14":"tag-masayoshi-son","15":"tag-softbank-group-corp","16":"tag-technology","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115337394101106930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}