SoftBank to buy ABB robotics unit for $5.4 billion as it boosts its AI play (www.cnbc.com)

SoftBank Group agreed to acquire ABB’s robotics division for $5.4 billion, a deal that cancels ABB’s planned spin-off of the unit and is subject to global regulatory approval. ABB said the sale “will create immediate value” for shareholders and it will deploy proceeds under its capital-allocation plan. SoftBank’s founder Masayoshi Son framed the purchase as a step into “Physical AI,” tying robotics hardware to his vision of “Artificial Super Intelligence” (ASI) — which he characterizes as AI 10,000x smarter than humans — and joins SoftBank’s existing holdings such as chip designer Arm, a major stake in OpenAI, and robot-related investments like AutoStore and Agile Robots. For the AI/ML community the deal signals deeper vertical integration between industrial robotics hardware and advanced AI/software ecosystems. Technically, combining ABB’s industrial robot fleets, sensors, and automation platforms with SoftBank’s compute, chip IP (Arm) and AI partnerships could accelerate deployment of AI-driven perception, control and fleet-management systems at scale — from manufacturing automation to mobile robots and edge inference. It also raises governance and regulatory considerations around market concentration, data access for model training, and cross-border technology controls. If approved, the acquisition could speed innovation in embodied AI but will be watched closely for how SoftBank integrates ABB’s engineering and product roadmap with its broader AI strategy.