New Delhi, Oct. 8 -- SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire the robotics business of Swiss engineering group ABB for $5.4 billion, marking a major step in the Japanese investor's strategy to merge robotics and artificial intelligence (AI), which Founder and CEO Masayoshi Son calls "Physical AI."

This acquisition, announced on Wednesday, is the latest effort by CEO Son to establish Softbank as a core player in the development of artificial intelligence.

Although SoftBank pushed into humanoid robotics a decade ago with its Pepper robot before scaling back, its recent investments in the sector include Berkshire Grey and AutoStore, alongside leading a $40 billion funding round in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and $6.5 billion purchase of chip design c...