SoftBank Expands AI Footprint With Multibillion-Dollar Robotics Deal

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s autonomous aspirations go back years. - kim kyung-hoon/Reuters

Tech conglomerate SoftBank Group has agreed to a $5.4 billion deal for the industrial-robotics-focused business of ABB, a bid to combine the potential of artificial intelligence with robots.

It marks the largest in a long and patchy record of robotics investments by SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son, who has mused for well over a decade about the potential of both technologies—often in grandiose terms.

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Son said fusing the technologies would drive “a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward,” in a statement announcing the deal Wednesday.

The winds of the financial markets have been at Son’s back lately. SoftBank’s stock has more than tripled over the past six months—a dynamic that historically has led Son to go on deal sprees.

The Japanese billionaire has propelled SoftBank headfirst into AI and related sectors, with a $30 billion commitment to invest in OpenAI, a $2 billion investment in Intel and a $6.5 billion purchase of data-center-chip designer Ampere. In a January White House announcement, he pledged to make a $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure with OpenAI, a venture known as Stargate.

Son has told associates he hoped to incorporate robots in chip-manufacturing plants that will power AI.ABB’s expansion in Auburn Hills, Mich., includes a new training lab. - ABB

Son’s autonomous aspirations go back years. A colorful 30-year vision he presented in 2010 was peppered with graphics of humanoid robots. One slide featured the words “Coexistence with intelligent robots” alongside images of a robot wearing a chef’s hat and holding a plate next to a human chef.

SoftBank’s portfolio of investments includes companies that make autonomous floor cleaners and an array of technologies for warehouses.

There have been a number of misses over the years.

In 2018, it made a $375 million investment in Zume, a splashy, short-lived startup that marketed itself as a company that made pizza with robots. The robotic arms that plucked pizzas from ovens were made by ABB.

Earlier robot investments by SoftBank have also met with mixed results. A company controlled by SoftBank in the mid-2010s made a robot called Pepper that it said could recognize human emotions. It shut down operations in June this year.

In 2021, SoftBank sold Boston Dynamics—known for its videos of dog- and human-like robots—in a deal that valued it around $1 billion after years of investment. Another SoftBank portfolio company, warehouse automation firm Autostore, has seen its stock fall over 60% since its 2021 listing.

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The deal to buy the ABB business caught investors in both companies by surprise. ABB, a Swiss industrial conglomerate, had been planning to spin off the division as a separately listed public company next year.

The division is known for making robotic arms used in manufacturing, particularly in the automotive sector. The unit, which ABB says is the world’s second-largest robotics manufacturer, has grown little in recent years but is profitable. Before including costs like depreciation and taxes, it produced $313 million of profit in fiscal 2024.

Write to Dominic Chopping at [email protected] and Eliot Brown at [email protected]

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