ABB Reportedly Exploring $3.5 Billion Sale of Robotics Business

Automation company ABB is reportedly preparing a possible deal for its robotics unit.

The company is working with Bank of America and UBS on a spinoff or sale of the robotics business, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (May 27), citing sources familiar with the matter.

According to the report, ABB had said last month it aims to spin off the robotics unit in the second quarter of next year, as CEO Morten Wierod shifts the company’s focus to more profitable parts of the business. Among them is electrification, thanks to the rise of new data centers being built to meet artificial intelligence (AI) demand.

The report added that the company could also consider selling the unit, which could be worth upwards of $3.5 billion, rather than spinning it off.

Bloomberg notes that ABB’s robotics unit accounts for roughly two-thirds of the company’s robotics and discrete automation division. It employs 7,000 people, with manufacturing hubs in China, the U.S. and Sweden, where ABB’s robotics business was launched.

PYMNTS examined the rise of robotics in the workplace earlier this year after Figure, an OpenAI-backed robotics AI startup, showcased humanoid robots that can understand voice commands and can grab objects they hadn’t seen before.

Jenny Shern, general manager at robot builder NexCOBOT, told PYMNTS at the time that humanoid robots face more complicated challenges than industrial robots.

“Traditional industrial robotic arms with vision systems primarily rely on preprogrammed instructions to execute tasks. This works well in factory environments where applications are repetitive and goal-oriented,” she told PYMNTS.

However, “implementing humanoid robots into household settings is a more complex advancement because, unlike factories, household environments are highly dynamic, and tasks will vary significantly from one home to another,” Shern said.

In unpredictable environments, humanoid robots need AI to operate effectively in daily life because preprogrammed instructions won’t be sufficient, she added.

Rodney Brooks, co-founder and CTO of Robust AI, said Figure’s robot demo illustrated just how superior humans are to machines when it comes to picking up objects.

“The human effortlessly reached into the paper bag, extracting each item one by one — often with only the slightest glimpse of each — then laid them out neatly on a pristine countertop,” Brooks told PYMNTS. “In contrast, the humanoid robots picked up the objects at a snail’s pace, about 10 to 20 times slower, despite having a clear, unobstructed view of them.”