China's National Development and Reform Commission has told SoftBank it will not approve the Japanese conglomerate's $5.4 billion acquisition of ABB's robotics division, the Financial Times reported on November 5, citing multiple people familiar with the matter3,11. The deal, signed on October 8, 2025, valued the unit at an enterprise value of $5.375 billion1.
The rejection centers on an AI-specific concern: the National Development and Reform Commission worried that robotics data generated on factory floors could be transferred overseas and used to train AI models, including those developed by OpenAI, in which SoftBank is a major investor6.
What the deal carried
The acquisition would have given SoftBank more than 7,000 engineers, roughly 500,000 installed robots worldwide, and a client list that includes BMW. SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son had framed the purchase as a step toward what he calls physical AI — extending SoftBank's reach from chips and software into machines that move.
SoftBank had expected the deal to be approved until late October, the Financial Times reported. The European Commission cleared the transaction without conditions in March, but Washington's review had not concluded. China's decision proved decisive.
Beijing's leverage
China is ABB's largest market for robots, representing around 30% of the division's business. ABB still runs a manufacturing hub in China with a robotics team of more than 2,000 people. ANALYSIS That concentration gives Beijing effective veto power over any change in ownership of the unit, regardless of other jurisdictions' approvals.
The block leaves ABB holding a division it has sought to exit. SoftBank is reportedly trying to determine whether a revised deal structure could receive a second look from Chinese regulators.
SoftBank shares were already down about 5% in Tokyo trading before the Financial Times report and changed little afterward. Neither SoftBank nor ABB responded to Reuters' requests for comment; China's National Development and Reform Commission could not be reached.
ANALYSIS The stated rationale — that robot-generated operational data could feed overseas AI training pipelines — extends Beijing's data-sovereignty enforcement from the digital layer into industrial hardware ownership. The decision ties cross-border M&A clearance directly to downstream AI model development, a linkage that did not figure in the European Commission's review.