Munich's Agile Robots raised $500 million from SoftBank, NVIDIA, Hitachi and T.Capital at an $8.5 billion valuation. Its new plant can build 10,000 humanoids a year; its own plan for 2027 is 1,000 to 2,000.
ABB Robotics is delivering over 1,700 large robots to the body shops of BMW's Munich plant and its Tiexi plant in China. The order spans the border that SoftBank and ABB are now weighing as a dividing line for their blocked robotics deal.
China's foreign-investment security review has prohibited SoftBank's purchase of ABB Robotics' China business, ABB confirmed on Nov. 5, putting the $5.375 billion deal in doubt. The veto falls on the one part of the unit SoftBank can least afford to leave out.