China barred SoftBank from buying ABB Robotics' China business, part of a $5.375 billion sale.

Verified at ABB's own release, read as a PDF at abb.com. It is carded on its event date of November 5, not today: it surfaced late. Editions 075, 076, 077 and 078 all covered that date and none reached it, which we own here. What is new on November 7 is the carve out reporting, which sits in the timeline, not in the hook.

ABB Ltd published Update on divestment of ABB Robotics, datelined Zurich, Switzerland, November 5, 2026. We read it as a PDF on ABB's own news server. The operative sentence: ABB "has been informed by SoftBank that the Office of the Working Mechanism for Foreign Investment Security Review in China has prohibited the acquisition of the ABB Robotics business in China." Background restated there: in October 2025 ABB agreed to divest its Robotics division to SoftBank Group Corp. for an enterprise value of $5.375 billion, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. SoftBank manages the approval process. The 2 are "in close dialogue and are working constructively on the transaction." No reason, deadline or revised closing date is given. ABB's boilerplate: about 110,000 employees, shares on the SIX Swiss Exchange and Nasdaq Stockholm. Reported elsewhere, not in the release: the division has about 7,000 employees, $2.3 billion of 2024 revenue, roughly 7% of group sales, plants in China, Sweden and the United States and a large Shanghai site; the review body acted on Thursday November 5; the agreement obliges SoftBank to buy every share of the holding company, the mismatch the prohibition creates; ABB expected to close before year end; SoftBank shares fell 11% in Tokyo on Friday November 6, ABB's fell that day for a weekly loss above 5%; both are studying a carve out placing the China business under separate ownership, reported by Bloomberg on Saturday November 7 citing people familiar, who call the talks preliminary and possibly futile; ABB is weighing a sale elsewhere at $2 billion to $3 billion, or reviving a spin off listed in Switzerland or Sweden; Citigroup's Martin Wilkie estimates the block halves ABB's acquisition firepower to about $5 billion. Not established anywhere: the legal reasoning, whether data or technology transfer was the concern, and whether any approval remains available.

1. Oct 8 2025

   ABB agrees to divest its Robotics division to SoftBank Group for $5.375 billion of enterprise value, subject to approvals, with closing expected mid to late 2026. Masayoshi Son calls physical AI SoftBank's next frontier.

2. Sep 21

   SoftBank borrows 11.1 billion dollars at the highest coupons it has ever paid to fund its next OpenAI instalment. Edition 031 carded the pricing. SoftBank's cumulative OpenAI investment is reported at $65 billion as of October.

3. Sep 23

   China's state asset regulator counts the American network switches inside state data centres and finds them almost everywhere. Edition 031. The same year brings China's first frontier AI export controls.

4. Nov 5

   ABB discloses that China's foreign investment security review office has prohibited the acquisition of the ABB Robotics business in China. No reason is published. ABB says both sides are working constructively on the transaction.

5. Nov 7

   Bloomberg reports that SoftBank and ABB are studying a carve out that would put the China business under separate ownership, and that ABB is weighing a sale elsewhere at $2 billion to $3 billion. Sources call the talks preliminary.