China blocks SoftBank's $5.4 billion purchase of ABB's robotics unit, ABB confirms

China has blocked SoftBank Group's roughly $5.4 billion takeover of ABB's robotics division, and ABB itself has confirmed it. In a statement on Thursday, the Swiss-Swedish engineering group said it had been told Chinese regulators "prohibited the acquisition of the ABB Robotics business in China," according to Swissinfo's account of the Financial Times report. Nikkei Asia and Seeking Alpha carry the same news.

What is known, and who says it

SoftBank announced the deal on Oct. 8, 2025, agreeing to pay $5.375 billion for ABB's robotics business, subject to approvals in the EU, China and the United States. According to the FT as relayed by Swissinfo, the deal cleared China's competition review in February and then ran into a foreign investment security review.

The FT names China's National Development and Reform Commission, the state planner, as the regulator. Nikkei refers only to "Chinese authorities," and ABB's statement says "Chinese regulators," so the specific agency rests on FT sourcing. The NDRC had not responded to a request for comment, and SoftBank declined to comment.

Why it was reportedly blocked

These points come from the FT's reporting, not from a Chinese government statement, and people close to SoftBank told the paper it was unclear which conditions were formally requested:

• Concern that robot operating data could be sent overseas and used to train AI models, including those of OpenAI, where SoftBank is a major investor.
• Scrutiny of ABB's Chinese supply chains, and a request that some manufacturing stay in China.
• Discussion of keeping some intellectual property in China, which could have meant spinning parts of the business off to Chinese owners.

China is the largest market for ABB's robotics unit, per the FT. It reports that more than 90% of robots sold to Chinese customers are built locally and that ABB employs about 12,700 people in the country. Those figures help explain why Beijing had leverage: the business cannot be separated from China.

What it means for dealmakers and for SoftBank

Because the block came late, after the competition clearance, it is a warning to anyone planning a deal for a technology business with Chinese operations: passing antitrust review does not end the process. The FT notes that in April the same commission blocked Meta's $2 billion purchase of the AI start-up Manus, so this is a pattern, not a one-off.

For SoftBank, the deal was meant to put physical robots behind its AI strategy. The FT says the group is working out what went wrong and whether it can seek approval again. Neither it nor ABB has said what happens to the robotics unit next. Earlier this autumn SoftBank also sold $11.1 billion of high-yield bonds to fund its OpenAI commitment, so capital is a live question for the group.

SoftBank's Tokyo-listed shares closed our data window at ¥29,485 on Nov. 5, 29.5% below the Oct. 6, 2026 peak in our chart. That fall started well before this news, so it should not be read as a reaction to it. We have not independently confirmed how ABB's shares moved on the announcement.

Sources: ABB statement via Swissinfo/Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, Seeking Alpha (Nov. 5, 2026); SoftBank Group press release (Oct. 8, 2025); price history from Yahoo Finance. The regulator's reasons are as reported by the FT and have not been confirmed by Beijing. This is market information, not investment advice.