Shares of SoftBank jumped as much as 13% Thursday, hours after the Japanese giant announced a deal to buy the robotics division of Swiss engineering firm ABB for $5.4 billion, further advancing SoftBank’s AI footprint.
The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval globally, means ABB will no longer look to spin off its robotics business as a separately listed company.
“SoftBank’s next frontier is Physical AI. Together with ABB Robotics, we will unite world-class technology and talent under our shared vision to fuse Artificial Super Intelligence and robotics — driving a groundbreaking evolution that will propel humanity forward,” Masayoshi Son, founder of SoftBank, said in a statement.
Artificial Super Intelligence, or ASI, is Son’s idea of AI that is 10,000 times smarter than humans.
Son has looked to position SoftBank at the center of the potential AI boom through investments and acquisitions in different areas of technology. SoftBank owns chip designer Arm, for example, and has a major stake in OpenAI.
SoftBank-owned British chip designer Graphcore is also planning to invest $1.3 billion in India, including a new research hub, Bloomberg reported early Thursday.
The plans are expected to be announced during British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to India this week. He will be accompanied by a business delegation, the report said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 1.11%, while the Topix index was up 0.36%.
Over in Australia, the ASX/S&P 200 rose 0.44%.
Futures for Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index pointed to a higher open, trading at 26,863, against the index’s previous close of 26,829.46.
South Korean markets are closed for a holiday.
U.S. equity futures were little changed in early Asian hours after the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite scored new records Wednesday stateside as investors shrugged off the government shutdown in its second week.
Overnight, the broad index S&P 500 climbed 0.58% to close at 6,753.72, notching its eighth winning day of the last nine. Gains on the index were led by the information technology, utilities and industrials sectors, which notched fresh closing highs.
The Nasdaq Composite rose 1.12% to finish at 23,043.38. That’s the first time the technology-heavy index has closed above the 23,000 mark.
However, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.20 points to end the day at 46,601.78.
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal, Alex Harring, Sean Conlon and Sarah Min contributed to this report.
