China’s state planner has informed Japanese investor SoftBank that it will not permit the US$5.4 billion takeover of the robotics segment of engineering group ABB. The Swiss firm announced the news on Thursday.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) prohibited the acquisition last week, according to a report by the Financial Times. SoftBank had expected the deal to be completed until it received this notification. The NDRC is responsible for reviewing foreign investments that may have national security implications.
The NDRC expressed concern regarding the overseas transfer of robotics data, which could be utilized to train AI models. This includes models developed by OpenAI, a company in which SoftBank is a major investor.
This marks the second major deal blocked by China this year, following an order for Meta Platforms to unwind its US$2 billion-plus acquisition of the artificial intelligence start-up Manus. The move reflects Beijing’s tightening scrutiny of foreign investments in domestic start-ups developing frontier technologies. It also limits SoftBank’s goals in the robotics industry, which CEO Masayoshi Son has described as a core component of its AI investment strategy.
ABB stated that the company and SoftBank were in close dialogue and working on the transaction. China is ABB’s largest robotics market, accounting for approximately 30 per cent of its robot-related business. The company operates about 30 local companies in China with roughly 15,000 employees across nearly 130 cities, alongside online and offline channels in nearly 700 cities. According to its website, ABB Engineering (Shanghai) serves as the group's global robotics headquarters and a significant production base and research and development centre.
SoftBank declined to comment on the matter, and the NDRC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
