China blocks SoftBank’s acquisition of ABB Robotics in China

ABB said China’s Office of the Working Mechanism for Foreign Investment Security Review prohibited the acquisition of ABB Robotics in China, and that ABB had been informed by SoftBank.[1] ABB said the companies remained in close dialogue and were working constructively on the transaction.[1] The available timestamps place ABB’s notice at 07:25 CET on October 8, 2025, and Bloomberg’s item at 3:15 AM UTC on November 5, 2026.[2][3] The evidence does not explain the gap between those timestamps.

ABB put the transaction’s enterprise value at $5.375 billion.[3] It estimated net cash proceeds after transaction costs at about $5.3 billion and said the divestment would produce a non-operational, pre-tax book gain of about $2.4 billion upon closing.[3] ABB estimated separation costs at about $200 million, with roughly half already included in its 2025 guidance.[3] These are company estimates, not completed-sale results. The transaction was subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, and ABB expected a mid-to-late 2026 close.[3]

ABB said it would abandon its earlier plan to spin off the robotics business as a separately listed company.[3] The company said the robotics division had limited business and technology synergies with its remaining businesses, as well as different demand and market characteristics.[3] ABB Robotics had about 7,000 employees and recorded $2.3 billion in revenue in 2024; it represented about 7 percent of ABB group revenue and had a 12.1 percent Operational EBITA margin.[3] ABB said the division could combine its technology and industry expertise with SoftBank’s capabilities in AI, robotics and next-generation computing.[3]

SoftBank described Physical AI as its next frontier and said it would unite with ABB Robotics around a vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics.[3] The Robot Report, citing The Financial Times, said authorities had expressed concerns about robotics data being transferred overseas and used to train AI models.[4] Bloomberg said the takeover was widely expected to bolster SoftBank’s revenue and profit as it awaited a boost from OpenAI’s public debut.[2] The South China Morning Post reported that China was tightening scrutiny of foreign investment in domestic startups developing frontier technologies.[5] These reports provide context, but do not establish the specific basis for the decision on ABB Robotics.