SoftBank to buy ABB's robotics arm in 5.4 billion deal

SoftBank to buy ABB's robotics arm in $5.4 billion deal SoftBank Group 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 artificial intelligence and a global wave of data center construction. 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 Chief Executive Officer Morten Wierod, who took the helm in August last year.