China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion takeover of ABB's robotics business

China's National Development and Reform Commission has told SoftBank it will not allow its $5.4 billion acquisition of the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB. The Financial Times first reported the prohibition on November 5, and ABB confirmed the same day in a statement that SoftBank had told it China's Office of the Working Mechanism for Foreign Investment Security Review had prohibited the acquisition of the ABB Robotics business in China. SoftBank declined to comment, and the commission did not respond to a request for comment. (Cover photo is a file photo of an ABB industrial robot.)

Statement covers only the China business; whole deal not declared dead

Notably, ABB's statement refers only to the business in China and stops short of saying the whole deal is dead. ABB and SoftBank are reported to still be working on the deal, but China is ABB Robotics' biggest market, so the ruling leaves the structure, timing and price of the sale uncertain. SoftBank agreed in October 2025 to buy ABB's robotics division for an enterprise value of about $5.375 billion, with completion expected between mid-2026 and the end of the year; the European Union approved the deal unconditionally in March.

Concern that robotics data could flow overseas to train AI

According to the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, the commission was concerned that robotics data could be transferred overseas and used to train AI models, including those developed by OpenAI, in which SoftBank is a major investor. Reuters said it could not immediately verify the report, and no official document setting out the grounds for the ban has been published. SoftBank chief executive Masayoshi Son has made robotics central to his push into what he calls physical AI, seeking to establish SoftBank as a core player in the development of artificial intelligence.

Second major deal blocked by China this year

Reuters noted that this is the second major deal China has stopped this year. Earlier in 2026, the commission ordered Meta to unwind its acquisition of AI startup Manus, a deal worth more than $2 billion. The case suggests Beijing is tightening scrutiny of cross-border deals involving data and artificial intelligence, adding uncertainty for global technology mergers and acquisitions.

(Sources: Financial Times (via Reuters), Reuters and ABB statement, November 5, 2026. The formal grounds for the ban have not been published; the explanation comes from people cited by the Financial Times. Cover photo is a file photo of an ABB industrial robot.)