Swedish-Swiss tech company ABB will invest $280m in a new robotics hub in Västerås, Sweden, in a move designed to increase production capacity by 50% and bolster the company’s ability to meet automation and product expectations from its European customers.
The money will be used to build a state-of-the-art campus, offering customers access to AI-enabled collaborative and industrial robots. The new campus will help ABB reach its ‘local-for-local’ production strategy through flexible automation – a process whereby robots can be re-tasked to perform different tasks.
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Björn Rosengren, CEO at ABB, said 95% of all robots ABB sells in Europe are manufactured in Västerås, adding: “Following important investments in China and the US, the new facility in Sweden will strengthen our capabilities in serving our customers in Europe with locally manufactured products in a growing market.
“This is a strong commitment not only to our local-for-local strategy but to all our robotics customers across Europe.”
ABB, a company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, has a workforce of 105,000 employees, of which 1,300 are based in Västerås. In March, the company announced its intention to expand its Michigan facility in the US. The expansion will create 72 jobs and increase the factory’s production capacity in North America.
“Our new, sustainable facility in Sweden will be located at the cradle of ABB Robotics’ global innovation, starting with ABB’s development of the world’s first commercial all-electric robot nearly 50 years ago,” said Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics. “In our new R&D centre, we are focusing on the development of new digital and AI-enabled technologies, making robots increasingly accessible while lowering the entry barrier for applications in all industries.”
The new hub in Västerås will open in late 2026.
