SoftBank Group Corp. has agreed to acquire the robotics division of Swiss engineering giant ABB Ltd. for $5.4 billion, in a landmark deal that marks Masayoshi Son’s most ambitious push yet to merge artificial intelligence with physical automation.
The transaction, announced on Wednesday, represents a major reshaping of both companies’ strategic priorities. For ABB, it’s a divestment from one of its most volatile but high-profile businesses. For SoftBank, it’s a major step toward establishing what Son calls “Physical AI” — the fusion of advanced machine learning models with robotics that can act, sense, and learn in the real world.
The ABB robotics acquisition gives SoftBank immediate global scale in industrial robotics, adding roughly 7,000 employees, a network of manufacturing plants across Europe, Asia, and North America, and a portfolio of over 400,000 industrial robots deployed globally. ABB’s robotics division generated $2.3 billion in revenue last year, contributing about 7% to ABB’s total sales.
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While ABB’s robotics business has long been respected for its precision automation technology, it has struggled to maintain high profit margins due to intense competition from Japan’s Fanuc and Yaskawa, and Germany’s Kuka — now owned by China’s Midea Group. ABB’s decision to sell, rather than spin off the division, came after years of underperformance and challenges in integrating its robotics operations with its core electrification and automation segments.
ABB CEO Morten Wierod, who took over in 2023, told Reuters the sale offered “immediate value” and would allow ABB to focus on higher-margin and faster-growing areas.
“We always said that robotics is a market with much higher volatility,” he said. “This transaction allows us to channel resources into electrification, automation, and digitalization — markets where we see stable long-term growth.”
The deal is expected to close between mid-2026 and late 2026, pending regulatory approvals in the European Union, Japan, and the United States. ABB will receive about $5.3 billion in cash proceeds, which Wierod said would be used to expand production capacity, develop next-generation automation technologies, and fund potential acquisitions.
For SoftBank, the acquisition continues a series of aggressive moves to secure dominance in artificial intelligence and robotics infrastructure. In March, SoftBank bought chip design startup Ampere Computing for $6.5 billion, part of a broader strategy to control the hardware powering AI systems. The company has also invested heavily in automation startups such as Berkshire Grey, AutoStore, and Brain Corp, and led a $40 billion funding round in OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.
Son, who has previously described himself as “obsessed with AI,” said the ABB acquisition is designed to combine SoftBank’s growing AI software ecosystem with physical robotics platforms.
“SoftBank’s next frontier is physical AI,” he said. “Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics — driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward.”
Industry experts see the move as part of SoftBank’s return to high-risk, high-reward investing after a period of restraint following the Vision Fund’s multibillion-dollar losses in 2020 and 2021.
ABB Exits an Uneven Market
ABB’s robotics division was once a symbol of the company’s innovation drive, supplying robots to major automakers and electronics firms. However, the division’s performance lagged in recent years due to uneven global demand and rising costs. In 2022, ABB reported that its robotics profit margin had dropped below 10%, far lower than its automation unit’s 17%.
Zürcher Kantonalbank, which had valued the division at slightly under $4 billion ahead of a planned IPO, called the $5.4 billion sale price “an unexpectedly strong outcome.” ABB’s shares rose 2% in early Zurich trading on Wednesday, while SoftBank’s stock fell slightly by 2%, as investors digested the scale of the acquisition.
The sale will also allow ABB to exit a sector facing structural headwinds. The global robotics market — valued at around $40 billion in 2024, according to Statista — is projected to grow 14% annually, driven by AI adoption and labor shortages. But the market is also becoming crowded with new entrants from China, South Korea, and the U.S., many of whom are offering cheaper, AI-powered robots.
The Rise of “Physical AI”
Son has spent years talking about “Singularity” — the moment when AI surpasses human intelligence. With the ABB acquisition, he appears to be pivoting that vision toward tangible, machine-driven productivity. The concept of “Physical AI” involves combining advanced AI systems like OpenAI’s GPT models with robotics capable of adapting to unpredictable physical environments, from warehouses and factories to homes and hospitals.
The acquisition will likely draw scrutiny from competition regulators, especially in Europe and Japan, where industrial robotics forms a critical export sector. The European Commission is expected to assess whether the deal gives SoftBank disproportionate influence over automation supply chains, particularly given its existing stake in several robotics and chip design firms.
In Japan, the government has generally supported Son’s AI vision, viewing it as aligned with Tokyo’s “Society 5.0” initiative — a national framework to fuse digital and physical innovation. Japanese industry officials believe the ABB deal could help strengthen domestic robotics and AI industries, especially as Japan faces chronic labor shortages.
The acquisition, expected to finalize within two years, will mark one of the largest-ever robotics takeovers and a defining moment for Son’s comeback as one of the tech industry’s most daring visionaries.