Voice of AI: 🤖 Physical AI & geopolitical shifts 🌍
- Ralph Schwehr
- Oct 9
- 4 min read
When intelligence gets moving
Ralph Schwehr October 9, 2025
The silent revolution is taking shape. For decades, artificial intelligence lived in the cloud, in code, in the minds of researchers. Invisible... until now. With SoftBank's acquisition of ABB Robotics, the relationship between the digital and physical worlds is shifting. Suddenly, AI is gaining muscles, grippers, and torque. "Physical AI" sounds like science fiction, but it's the beginning of a new industrial reality: machines that no longer just react, but anticipate. They learn how to produce, assemble, heal, and transport—not according to plan, but according to intention.
What's emerging here is more than Automation 2.0 . It's the embodiment of intelligence , and it's changing everything: work, value creation, and power relations. When robots are no longer programmed but trained, the boundaries between humans, machines, and models blur. The factory floor becomes a neural network. Production lines become learning ecosystems.
And while SoftBank, OpenAI, and others are building this future technologically, countries are beginning to reshuffle their strategic deck. The US is relaxing export bans to secure spheres of influence. The EU is launching programs to merge research and industry. Japan is exporting capital to pool hardware intelligence. And somewhere in between, a new playing field is emerging—half economics, half geopolitics.
We are at the dawn of the age of embodied AI , an era in which data streams and power grids, chips and diplomacy, cloud and robotics merge into a single global system. Leading here requires more than technology. They need attitude, energy, and a vision of what "intelligence" actually means in a physically connected world.
SoftBank & the new era of “Physical AI”
SoftBank's USD 5.375 billion acquisition of ABB Robotics marks the hardware giant's return to the top tier of the AI industry. The deal replaces the planned spinoff and symbolizes the beginning of a new growth narrative: AI meets industry, capital meets cognition.
"Physical AI" represents the fusion of robotics and learning models. A paradigm shift that redefines the logic of production. Machines become dynamic actors in value chains: They observe, adapt, and interact. Manufacturing learns to think.
SoftBank is thus tapping into a field that hardly anyone has yet controlled: the physical scaling of AI . While software platforms are saturating, industrial reality is opening up as the next frontier: tangible, scalable, and political.
Infrastructure revolution: chips, clouds and distance
While SoftBank connects machines, Cisco connects data centers. The new P200 network chip connects AI clusters across hundreds of kilometers with lower energy consumption, less hardware, and greater stability. This isn't just engineering excellence, but strategic infrastructure policy: Whoever controls the backbone controls the future of intelligence.
At the same time, OpenAI is opening the next chapter of its platform strategy: apps in the ChatGPT ecosystem, an SDK for developers, and a deepened partnership with AMD for up to 6 gigawatts of GPU capacity . This creates nothing less than the power architecture of the AI era .
"Compute is no longer a resource; it's a currency. And every minute of computing becomes geopolitical." Ralph Schwehr
Governance & Geopolitics: Security becomes a strategy
Power demands control. IBM and Anthropic are joining forces to equip enterprise AI with verifiable security and governance. A signal to large companies that want to invest in AI without risking their compliance.
But while Europe is discovering governance as a differentiating factor, geopolitics is playing a different game: The US approves NVIDIA exports to the UAE . A move that strengthens regional superclusters and secures Western influence in the emerging AI belt from Abu Dhabi to Riyadh.
The EU Commission is countering with " Apply AI " and " AI in Science " programs, which aim to bring together research, industry, and government actors to accelerate research. The new motto: Enable, don't just regulate.
Markets & Capital: Consolidation with Calculation
But the markets are following selectively. Crunchbase reports strong Q3 growth in North America, driven by larger rounds rather than broad diversification. Investors are no longer looking for stories; they're looking for structure.
Consolidation is accelerating in the healthtech sector: Innovaccer is acquiring Story Health to scale data-driven healthcare systems. At the same time, demand for AI components remains high despite weaker exports from Taiwan . This demonstrates that industrial cyclicality is losing its dominance and AI is forming a distinct macroeconomy.
Key messages in a nutshell 🧩
Physical AI = the new industrial revolution: SoftBank opens the age of embodied intelligence.
Compute is power: infrastructure, energy, and chips are becoming geopolitical assets.
Governance becomes marketable: security as a product, not as a brake.
Capital is concentrating: fewer deals, but bigger bets.
Geopolitics sets the pace: technology has become diplomacy.
Sources (October 6–9, 2025)
SoftBank Press: SoftBank to acquire ABB Robotics – October 8, 2025
Reuters: Cisco rolls out chip for AI data centers over vast distances – October 8, 2025
OpenAI Newsroom: Apps in ChatGPT, SDK & AMD partnership – October 6th, 2025
IBM Newsroom: IBM and Anthropic partner for secure enterprise AI – October 7, 2025
European Commission: Keeping European industry and science at the forefront of AI – October 8, 2025
Reuters: US approves some NVIDIA UAE sales – October 9, 2025
Crunchbase News: VC funding Q3 North America – October 7th, 2025
STAT News: Innovaccer acquires Story Health – October 8, 2025
Reuters: Taiwan exports miss forecasts, AI demand strong – October 9, 2025
Conclusion
Physical AI marks the moment when artificial intelligence enters the workbench. Machines become agents, markets become political arenas, and energy becomes intelligence.
The question is no longer whether AI will change the world, but who will keep it moving .
👉 Where are you already combining digital and physical intelligence? Contact us at info@oakai.de and we'll show you how physical AI can become industrial, secure, and scalable.
Comments