SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire ABB’s industrial robots unit at an enterprise value of almost $5.4 billion, reflecting billionaire Masayoshi Son’s growing bets on emerging technology in artificial intelligence and robotics.
The Japanese investment firm agreed to take over a business with more than 7,000 employees, which supplies industrial arms and robots to manufacturers including BMW. Swiss conglomerate ABB — which originally aimed to spin off the unit — will instead focus on more profitable areas such as electrification, which is also surging as the likes of OpenAI and Meta Platforms spend trillions on data centers.
ABB had said in April that it planned to create a separately listed entity for the robotics business in 2026. It was one of the first major strategic moves by CEO Morten Wierod, who took the helm in August last year.
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.