Mergers & Acquisitions

China’s prohibition of SoftBank’s purchase of ABB Robotics reflects wider concerns about data and AI, say experts.

Chinese authorities blocked the deal over concerns about robot data being transferred overseas and used to train AI models.

Agility Robotics becomes the first U.S.-based legged humanoid company to be publicly listed.

Deal is expected to provide approximately $465 million in gross capital as Agility expands deployments of its Digit humanoid with industrial customers.

Agility said it expects to raise $465 million in its combination with Churchill Capital Corp XI, $155 million less than it had estimated.

OMRON will add industrial computing from OnLogic to its industrial automation expertise to serve data- and AI-intensive applications.

The Schneider Electric acquisition of PTC gives it a ‘digital thread’ from design through operations, but it needs to integrate data and software, says Interact Analysis.

While physical AI architecture alternatives are growing in number, NVIDIA has taken a sovereign strategy to ensuring its role.

In September 2026, live events such as IMTS, ROSCon, and iROS brought a flood of robotics developments.

Qualcomm plans to integrate the Dragonwing and Arduino platforms with the MoveIt open-source manipulation framework.

The deal has been rumored for a couple of months, but it is now being reviewed by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

The August 2026 Robotics Investments Report includes a table with all 162 investments rounds, complete with breakdowns by technology, country, funding stage, and more.

Swarmer, which has developed swarm software, plans to work with Ratel Robotics’ unmanned ground vehicles in Ukraine.

Enovis said it plans to bring a robotic system targeting the knee within the next two years, followed by a system focusing on the shoulder.

NVIDIA is already a major model contributor to Hugging Face, which recently surpassed 1 million datasets.

The SPAC transaction values PlusAI, whose self-driving trucking software is already generating revenue, at about $800 million.

NexCOBOT, which provides functional safety and motion controllers, discusses how physical AI benefits from ‘Big Tech’ and where it will grow.

The EXL and iMerit executives explain how their companies’ combined expertise and platforms will help developers with reliable physical AI.

FORT Robotics said it expects valuation of more than $500 million as it lists on Nasdaq with plans to accelerate safety software development.

Automotive suppliers Unichem and R&Y are working with Loomia to develop tactile sensors for automotive and robotics applications.

Agility’s SPAC deal shows there is no one route to a robotics public listing, with SPAC mergers, reverse mergers, and traditional IPOs offering different advantages.

Avatar Robotics raised $6.5 million in funding to scale humanoid robots and remote teleoperation across industrial supply chains.