SoftBank Group Corp. witnessed a dramatic 11% surge in its share price following the landmark announcement of its agreement to acquire the robotics and automation division of Swiss industrial titan ABB for a staggering $5.4 billion. This decisive move instantly recalibrates the global robotics landscape and marks a significant escalation in SoftBank’s strategic pivot towards the nexus of artificial intelligence and physical machinery. The acquisition effectively halts ABB’s previous plans to spin off its robotics unit as an independent entity, bringing a key industrial player directly into the SoftBank ecosystem.

The transaction, pending customary global regulatory approvals, is being framed by SoftBank’s visionary founder, Masayoshi Son, as a foundational step toward achieving “Physical AI.” In a statement, Son articulated a shared ambition with ABB to fuse world-class robotics technology with his concept of Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)—a future AI paradigm he believes will be 10,000 times more intelligent than humans.

This union aims to propel a groundbreaking evolution in how intelligent machines interact with and augment the physical world, moving beyond pure software-based intelligence.

This massive investment is the latest in a series of strategic maneuvers by SoftBank to cement its position at the epicenter of the accelerating artificial intelligence revolution. The conglomerate’s portfolio already includes critical stakes in the AI value chain, such as its ownership of the essential chip architect Arm and a substantial stake in leading AI research entity OpenAI.

The acquisition of ABB’s established robotics arm provides the crucial physical component to this strategy, offering the industrial platforms and real-world applications necessary to bring Son’s ambitious ASI vision to life, signaling a new chapter of AI-driven industrial transformation.