At ABB’s annual general meeting in 2026, it will launch a proposal to decide on a 100% spin-off of its robotics division. The intention is for the business to start trading as a separately listed company during the second quarter of 2026.
“The board believes listing ABB Robotics as a separate company will optimize both companies’ ability to create customer value, grow and attract talent,” said ABB Chairman Peter Voser. “Both companies will benefit from a more focused governance and capital allocation. ABB will continue to focus on its long-term strategy, building on its leading positions in electrification and automation.”
ABB Robotics provides intelligent automation products to help its global customer base achieve improved productivity, flexibility and simplicity to solve operational challenges including labor shortages and the need to operate more sustainably. ABB believes customer value is created through the differentiated offering of the broadest robotics platforms, including autonomous mobile robots, software and artificial intelligence (AI) combined with proven domain expertise to a broad range of traditional and new industry segments. More than 80% of the offering is software/AI-enabled.
"ABB Robotics is a leader in its industry, and there are limited business and technology synergies between the ABB Robotics business and the remainder of ABB divisions, with different demand and market characteristics,” said ABB CEO Morten Wierod. “We believe this change will support value creation in both the ABB Group and in the separately listed pure play robotics business.”
Under the ABB Way decentralized operating model ABB Robotics has proven its double-digit margin resilience in most quarters since 2019, according to ABB. The company operates through its local-for-local setup with regional manufacturing hubs in Sweden, China and the United States.
The ABB Robotics division has approximately 7,000 employees. With 2024 revenues of $2.3 billion, it represented about 7% of ABB Group revenues and had an Operational EBITA margin of 12.1%.
If shareholders decide in favor of the proposal, the spin-off is planned to be done through a share distribution, whereby ABB shareholders will receive shares in the company to be listed—working name “ABB Robotics”—as a dividend in-kind in proportion to their existing shareholdings.
As from the first quarter of 2026, the Machine Automation division, which together with ABB Robotics currently forms the Robotics & Discrete Automation business area, will become a part of the Process Automation business area, designed to create customer value from technology synergies for software and control technologies, for example toward hybrid industries. The Machine Automation business is positioned in the high-end segment for PLCs, IPCs, servo motion, industrial transport systems and vision and software. The strategy and business priorities remain the responsibility of the divisional management team, under the ABB Way operating model.
