Announcing the $5.4 billion acquisition of Swiss conglomerate ABB Ltd.’s robotics unit last week, SoftBank Group Corp. Chief Executive Officer Masayoshi Son heralded an era of “physical AI” that would propel humanity forward. But I worry more risk-tolerant and better-funded Asian and US tech firms will lead the next robot revolution, while Europe gets left behind. Europe has for decades been a major producer and user of robots: It boasts two of the “big four” industrial robot companies, ABB and Kuka AG (the other two are Fanuc Corp. and Yaskawa Electric Corp. of Japan), plus more than one-third of the world’s professional, consumer and medical robot developers. Yet the robot hierarchy is poised for upheaval as artificial intelligence becomes integrated into robotics, giving it far greater capabilities. And just as is happening in the auto industry, Europe risks losing its edge.

Full opinion : SoftBank’s $5.4B purchase of ABB’s robotics unit is another setback for Europe, which risks losing its edge to Asian and US companies in the “physical AI” era.