SoftBank weighs an $18 billion acquisition of Allied Universal, the largest U.S. security firm

People familiar with the matter said SoftBank Group is weighing an acquisition of Allied Universal, the largest security services company in the U.S., in a deal that could value the closely held firm at as much as $18 billion. Bloomberg News first reported the talks on Oct 16, and Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter, put the equity value at about $18 billion the same day.

For SoftBank's robot plans, what it would buy first is the customer base and the data-center foothold, not a robot business. The asset on the table is a human workforce: about $23 billion a year in revenue that Allied says comes from security and facility services. Founder Masayoshi Son is exploring AI-powered robots, or physical AI, across industries and looking to strengthen the infrastructure the technology needs, Reuters reported. On Allied's own account it operates in over 100 countries and territories and partners with more than 400 of the Fortune 500.

The equity value is more than three times SoftBank's ABB robots deal

SoftBank agreed in 2025 to buy ABB's robotics business for $5.4 billion, owns a majority stake in Arm and was an early investor in Alibaba. At up to $18 billion, Allied's equity alone is more than three times the ABB price. Allied also has about $12 billion of publicly traded debt across loans and bonds, Bloomberg data show, which could bring the total deal value close to $30 billion, about 1.3 times Allied's revenue, while the equity on its own is about 0.8 times.

Allied's backers include the private equity firm Warburg Pincus and the Canadian pension fund La Caisse. Reuters reported that Allied provides security staffing for businesses, venues and major events, and that it is growing in the data-center industry, supporting both the development and operation of facilities. The deliberations are preliminary and no final decisions have been made, including on price. SoftBank declined to comment, and Allied did not immediately respond to Reuters.

The people briefed on the talks say SoftBank would eventually replace only some staff with robots, for certain security tasks, and that humanoid security workers are likely to take longer.