SoftBank Group Corp.'s shares surged as much as 13%, hitting an intraday high, after the company agreed to acquire ABB Ltd.'s robotics business, boosting expectations for its AI exploration.

The Japanese company announced a deal worth approximately $5.4 billion during Wednesday's trading hours to acquire ABB's industrial robotics division.

The share price increase on Thursday (October 9) came amid a broad rebound in Japanese tech stocks following reports that Nvidia had joined a funding round for Elon Musk's xAI startup.

Andrew Jackson, head of Japanese equity strategy at Ortus Advisors, wrote that with the deal, SoftBank aims to enter the field of "real AI," which is "seen as potentially enabling the next industrial revolution."

Iwai Cosmo analyst Tomoaki Kawasaki said the new acquisition boosted investor growth expectations for SoftBank, whose stock price has continued to rise amid widespread enthusiasm for AI-related companies. Shares of other companies related to robot manufacturing also rose, including precision gear maker Nabtesco, which saw its share price rise as much as 4.5%. Yaskawa Electric, which gets about 44% of its revenue from robotics, saw its share price rise by 10%. Harmonic Drive Systems rose by 17%, and Fanuc rose by 4.6%.