Warehouse automation is getting some big new financial backing. Japan’s Softbank Group is paying $2.8 billion for a 40% stake in Norwegian logistics robotics business AutoStore, the WSJ’s Cara Lombardo and Maureen Farrell report, in a deal that values the business at $7.7 billion and comes as a growing share of companies are moving to automate their distribution operations.
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AutoStore’s technology makes it possible for warehouses to be operated almost entirely by robots. The 23-year-old company pioneered a system of densely storing and accessing goods that is widely used today. The technology is especially useful in the smaller warehouses that are proliferating in a race to speed up the delivery of goods to consumers in cities. AutoStore’s system is built around giant cubes and has robots travel across the tops of the bins to dig out items and deliver them to stations where workers assemble the orders.