A PYMNTS Company

SoftBank to Acquire ABB’s Robotics Division in $5.4 Billion Deal

By  |  October 8, 2025
SoftBank to Acquire ABB’s Robotics Division in $5.4 Billion Deal

SoftBank Group has agreed to purchase the robotics arm of Swiss engineering company ABB in a transaction valued at $5.4 billion, according to Reuters. The acquisition, announced Wednesday, underscores the Japanese conglomerate’s continued push to integrate artificial intelligence with robotics—a long-standing ambition of founder and CEO Masayoshi Son.

    Get the Full Story

    Complete the form to unlock this article and enjoy unlimited free access to all PYMNTS content — no additional logins required.

    Subscribe to our daily newsletter, PYMNTS Today.

    By completing this form, you agree to receive marketing communications from PYMNTS and to the sharing of your information with our sponsor, if applicable, in accordance with our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

    The deal marks another step in SoftBank’s bid to establish itself as a global leader in advanced automation technologies. Per Reuters, Son’s vision to fuse physical machines with AI—what he calls “Physical AI”—has become the company’s next strategic frontier. “SoftBank’s next frontier is Physical AI,” Son said in a statement released with the announcement.

    We’d love to be your preferred source for news.

    Please add us to your preferred sources list so our news, data and interviews show up in your feed. Thanks!

    Add as Preferred Source

    This acquisition also represents ABB’s shift from a previous plan to spin off and publicly list its robotics and automation unit. ABB’s robotics business, which competes with Japan’s Fanuc and Yaskawa and Germany’s Kuka, has faced years of sluggish sales and diminishing profit margins. The division employs around 7,000 people and generated $2.3 billion in revenue last year—approximately 7% of ABB’s total income, according to Reuters.

    Related: SoftBank’s Vision Fund Unit Acquires 25% Stake in Arm

    Morten Wierod, ABB’s CEO since last year, told Reuters that the company chose to sell rather than proceed with a spin-off after SoftBank’s proposal provided a more immediate financial return. ABB had informed shareholders in April about its plan to separate the robotics business, but the cash deal offered a faster and more certain path amid tough market conditions.

    For SoftBank, this purchase follows a string of high-profile investments and acquisitions aimed at strengthening its foothold in artificial intelligence. The company previously backed robotics firms such as Berkshire Grey and AutoStore, led a massive $40 billion funding round in OpenAI—the developer of ChatGPT—and earlier this year acquired chip designer Ampere for $6.5 billion.

    The sale is also seen as a major milestone for ABB under Wierod’s leadership. According to Reuters, Switzerland’s Zuercher Kantonalbank had expected ABB’s robotics division to be valued at slightly under $4 billion in a potential spin-off, suggesting that the SoftBank deal provided a more favorable outcome for ABB shareholders.

    Source: Reuters