Report: China Blocks SoftBank's $5.4 Billion Grab for ABB Robotics
The reported decision threatens a major step in SoftBank's push to combine AI with industrial robots. It would be Beijing's second major technology deal block this year, after Meta's acquisition of Manus.
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China has told SoftBank it will not approve its $5.4 billion purchase of ABB's robotics business, according to ABB, threatening a major expansion of the Japanese company's industrial AI ambitions.
China's state planner told SoftBank the acquisition could not proceed, ABB said, according to Reuters in a report carried by the South China Morning Post.
The agreement covers a business with about 7,000 employees and more than $2 billion in annual revenue. For SoftBank, it offered an established industrial robotics operation to support its push into AI-powered machines. For ABB, the reported rejection puts an agreed sale in doubt.
Beijing has not publicly confirmed the decision or explained its grounds. Neither the prospects for a revised transaction nor ABB's next step for the division have been established.
If the acquisition is stopped, it would be China's second major foreign technology deal block this year. In April, the National Development and Reform Commission, China's state planner, publicly prohibited Meta's acquisition of the AI company Manus and ordered the parties to withdraw the transaction.
