ABB confirms China blocked SoftBank deal for robotics unit

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China has blocked SoftBank’s $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB’s robotics unit, highlighting Beijing’s determination to lock in its edge in physical artificial intelligence and protect high-value technology from leaking to foreign rivals. Zurich-based ABB said Thursday that SoftBank told it about the decision by a Chinese government office that reviews foreign investment. SoftBank declined to comment. SoftBank announce

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odels to engineer real-world physical products and said it wanted to work with partners in manufacturing. SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son banked on the deal with ABB to accelerate his company’s push into AI, especially physical AI. Earlier this year, China’s National Development and Reform Commission began reviewing SoftBank’s acquisition on foreign investment grounds. In 2022, ABB opened a $150 million robotics mega-

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e that it doesn’t want the expertise and technology ABB has developed in China to help its rivals—especially one based in U.S. ally Japan, which has been in a diplomatic war of words with China over Taiwan. Tokyo-based SoftBank is a major shareholder of OpenAI, having invested some $64.6 billion for a stake of 13% as of Oct. 1. This week OpenAI, the U.S. company behind ChatGPT, said it made advances in using its AI m

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factory in Shanghai with support from local authorities. ABB said the facility would help Chinese customers develop more locally made products. As of early 2025, ABB’s robotics division had several thousand employees in China. ABB Robotics has been trying to apply AI in its robots so they can think on their feet rather than being programmed movement by movement as industrial robots have been for decades. Write to Raf

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AI company with Chinese roots. Beijing has also imposed export restrictions in cutting-edge areas such as biotechnology and batteries. ABB’s robot arms, automated vehicles and other products are widely used by companies in China for research and manufacturing. The robot users produce a large amount of data and know-how valuable for training AI-powered robots. By barring the SoftBank deal, Beijing is sending a messag

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