The numbers
North American companies ordered 10,989 robots worth $723.5 million in the third quarter, the Association for Advancing Automation reported. That is 24.8% more units and 26.1% more value than the same quarter last year, and the strongest three months of 2026 so far. Orders for the first nine months reached 28,984 robots valued at $1.89 billion, keeping the year on course to beat 2025.
The gain follows a 22.9% rise in units in the second quarter, which suggests the slowdown that began in 2024 has bottomed out. Robot orders are a leading indicator for factory spending, since machines are usually installed six to twelve months after they are ordered.
Where the money went
Semiconductor and electronics/photonics was the fastest-growing buyer, with orders up 97.6%. Automotive component suppliers ordered 90.4% more robots, plastics and rubber 67.7%, life sciences, pharma and biomedical 38.7%, and metals 37.0%. Automotive OEM orders, the largest single category in normal years, rose only 7.5%, a sign that carmakers are still working through older capacity plans.
Food and consumer goods fell 23.7%, the only large segment to shrink. Grocery chains and packaged-food plants have been slower to commit capital while consumers trade down and private-label volumes shift between plants.
Why factories keep buying
Two forces are doing the work. Labour is scarce and expensive in the regions where most US manufacturing sits, and machine vision plus cheaper force-torque sensing has pushed automation into tasks that were hand-work only five years ago: bin picking, cable routing, inspection of small castings and final assembly of mixed product lines.
Reshoring of electronics and battery supply chains adds demand that did not exist in 2020. New plants are designed around robots from the start, so each factory announcement converts into orders for arms, controllers, grippers and the conveyors and bearing assemblies that feed them.
What to watch
The order backlog at the big four robot makers will show whether the third quarter was a one-off or the start of a longer cycle. Analysts will also watch whether small and mid-sized job shops, which employ most metalworking workers in the Midwest, start ordering again. They have been the weakest part of the market for two years.
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