China Blocks SoftBank's $5.4 Billion Purchase of ABB's Robotics Unit, FT Reports

There was no official statement from Chinese authorities, and neither SoftBank nor ABB had commented publicly on the report at the time of writing.

If confirmed, the decision would remove one of the main building blocks of Masayoshi Son's push into what he calls physical AI, meaning artificial intelligence built into machines that act in the real world. It also lands on the market that matters most to the business being sold: China is the largest market for ABB's robotics division, which makes a Chinese veto hard for either company to work around. According to the FT, SoftBank is now trying to establish what went wrong and whether it can apply for approval again.

SoftBank agreed in October 2025 to buy the whole of ABB's robotics business in a deal that valued the unit at about $5.375 billion. At the time, the two companies said they expected to complete the transaction in the middle to late part of 2026, subject to approvals in the European Union, China and the United States. The European Commission cleared the deal unconditionally in March, while Chinese and US approvals were still outstanding as of late October.

The Swiss engineering group had originally planned to spin off the robotics division and list it separately before agreeing to the sale to SoftBank. The unit generated about $2.3 billion in revenue in 2024, roughly 7 per cent of ABB's group total, and employs around 7,000 people, with manufacturing in China, the United States and Sweden.

SoftBank shares fell about 5 per cent in Tokyo on Thursday morning. The report was not the only weight on the stock: Arm Holdings, in which SoftBank holds a majority stake, fell overnight after giving guidance that disappointed investors, and AI-linked shares across Asia have been under pressure since Democrats won control of the US Congress in this week's midterm elections.

The blocked deal would also leave a gap in SoftBank's hardware ambitions at a time when much of its exposure to artificial intelligence runs through its large investment in OpenAI and the US data centre build-out tied to it, an area Democrats have said they will scrutinise more closely.

If the transaction cannot be rescued, ABB will have to decide how to run or dispose of the robotics business on its own, since the unit remains on its books. Whether SoftBank seeks a fresh review in Beijing, and on what terms, is the next decision for both companies.