Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
ABB makes the electrical and automated machines that run factories, power grids, and buildings.
Imagine a giant factory that builds things without many people inside. Robots weld car frames, motors spin conveyor belts, and a software brain tells every machine what to do. ABB sells the robots, the motors, and that brain. It also sells the electrical equipment that keeps power flowing from a wind farm to a city, and the switches and chargers inside office buildings. Its customers are not regular shoppers. They are utilities, factories, data centers, ships, and construction firms that pay ABB to make their operations faster, safer, and less wasteful.
ABB runs on two main engines. The electrification business, roughly half of revenue, makes circuit breakers, transformers, and charging gear that move electricity safely from place to place. The motion and automation side, the other big chunk, builds industrial robots, drives, and control systems that run assembly lines and process plants. Think of it as the plumbing and nervous system of industry: one part carries the power, the other tells the machines what to do. A smaller robotics and discrete automation unit rounds things out. The company pulled in about $32 billion in revenue last year.
Headquartered in Zurich, ABB traces its roots to 1988 when a Swedish engineering firm and a Swiss one merged, though the businesses go back over a century. More recently it sharpened its focus, spinning off its turbocharging arm and selling its power grids unit, then buying companies that boost its software and machine-vision skills. It uses its cash to pay a steady dividend, buy back shares, and fund small acquisitions. The simple version: ABB sells the muscles and nerves of modern industry, and more factories and grids need them every year.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026