China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion purchase of ABB Robotics

ABB says Chinese regulators have barred SoftBank from buying its robotics business in China, leaving the $5.375 billion divestment in limbo.

China has blocked SoftBank Group from acquiring ABB's robotics business in China, ABB confirmed on Thursday, throwing the $5.375 billion divestment into doubt. ABB said SoftBank had informed it that China's Office of the Working Mechanism for Foreign Investment Security Review prohibited the acquisition of the ABB Robotics business in China.

The prohibition covers the China business, and ABB stopped short of saying the wider deal is dead. The Swiss group said it and SoftBank remain in close dialogue and are working constructively on the transaction. The stakes are high for both sides: China is ABB Robotics' biggest market, accounting for roughly 30 percent of its robot-related business.

ABB agreed in October 2025 to sell the division to SoftBank for an enterprise value of $5.375 billion, dropping an earlier plan to spin it off as a separately listed company. The sale was expected to close in mid-to-late 2026 and deliver about $5.3 billion in net cash proceeds. It cleared China's competition review in February 2026, then ran into the separate foreign-investment security review. ABB had said as recently as last month that it still expected the sale to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

The Financial Times first reported the decision. The newspaper said Chinese officials were concerned that robotics data could be transferred overseas and used to train AI models, including those built by OpenAI, in which SoftBank is a major investor. SoftBank declined to comment, and China's National Development and Reform Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Neither ABB nor the Chinese authorities have publicly given reasons for the prohibition.

The block is the second major deal Beijing has stopped this year, after Meta was ordered to unwind its acquisition of AI startup Manus for more than $2 billion. It also checks a central plank of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son's strategy: Son has called physical AI the company's next frontier, and ABB Robotics — about 7,000 employees and $2.3 billion in 2024 revenue — was to be its anchor asset. ABB shares fell 1.1 percent in morning trading in Europe; SoftBank shares ended the day down 6.8 percent in Tokyo.