SoftBank to Buy ABB’s Robotics Arm in $5.4 Billion Deal

SoftBank Group Corp. agreed to acquire ABB Ltd.’s industrial robots unit at an enterprise value of almost $5.4 billion, reflecting billionaire Masayoshi Son’s growing bets on emerging technology in artificial intelligence and robotics.

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 AG. 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 Inc. spend trillions on data centers.