China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion takeover of ABB's robotics division
China blocks SoftBank’s $5.4 billion takeover of ABB’s robotics division
China's state planner has prohibited SoftBank from acquiring the robotics segment of Swiss engineering group ABB for $5.4 billion. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) cited concerns that transferring robotics data overseas could facilitate the training of AI models, including those developed by OpenAI, in which SoftBank is a major investor. This decision marks the second major foreign investment deal blocked by China this year, following an order for Meta to unwind its acquisition of AI startup Manus. The blockage impacts SoftBank's AI investment strategy and ABB, whose robotics business represents around 30% of its operations in China, home to approximately 15,000 employees across nearly 130 cities.
Source: Robotics — Web news discovery · Read original article ↗
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What the source reports
Publisher-reported claims, with original evidence. These results have not been independently verified by RoboSignal.
Reported numbers
employees
≈15,000
View original evidence
B and SoftBank are in close dialogue and working on the transaction, ABB said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, representing around 30% of its robot-related business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) is home to its global robo
Open source S6cities
130
View original evidence
B and SoftBank are in close dialogue and working on the transaction, ABB said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, representing around 30% of its robot-related business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) is home to its global robo
Open source S6cities
700
View original evidence
B and SoftBank are in close dialogue and working on the transaction, ABB said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, representing around 30% of its robot-related business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) is home to its global robo
Open source S6
- paper: not_reported
Source excerpts and review record
Automatically extracted; no manual editorial approval recorded.
B and SoftBank are in close dialogue and working on the transaction, ABB said. China is ABB's biggest robotics market, representing around 30% of its robot-related business. ABB operates about 30 local companies in China with around 15,000 employees located in nearly 130 cities, as well as online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) is home to its global robo
Open source S6
it was told last week that China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) had prohibited the acquisition, the report said. The NDRC reviews foreign investments that might have national security implications. SoftBank declined to comment. The NDRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ABB shares were down 1.1% in morning trading after the blocked takeover was made public. The NDRC was conce
Open source S4
tics headquarters and is an important research-and-development center and production base for ABB Group. SoftBank shares were down about 5% before the FT report was published and they ended the day down 6.8%. The blocked ABB deal comes less than a week after SoftBank-backed digital-payments company OPay withdrew a US initial public offering, citing a regulatory inquiry by a foreign jurisdiction it did not identify.
Open source S7
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