SoftBank bulks up its robotics portfolio with ABB Group’s robotics unit (techcrunch.com)

SoftBank will acquire ABB Group’s robotics unit for $5.375 billion, a deal announced Wednesday and expected to close mid-to-late 2026 pending regulatory approval. The Zurich-based division—spun out by ABB in April—employs about 7,000 people, generated $2.3 billion in 2024 (down from $2.5 billion in 2023) and sells industrial robots and equipment for tasks such as picking, cleaning and painting. ABB says Sami Atiya, the division head, will depart once the transaction completes. For the AI/ML community this reinforces SoftBank’s push into “physical AI”: integrating advanced models and compute with real-world robotics. SoftBank already backs robotics firms (AutoStore, Skild AI, Agile Robots) and lists robotics alongside AI chips, data centers and energy as core bets. The acquisition could accelerate deployment of on-device and edge AI for perception, motion planning and control at scale, revive product road maps and consolidate industrial-automation IP and talent. It also signals increased M&A-driven consolidation in industrial robotics and could spur tighter integration between large models, specialized inference hardware, and factory-floor automation — with implications for supply chains, startup competition and standards for safe, real-world AI deployment.