Automation & robotics
Automation and robotics covers the industrial robots, mobile robots, programmable logic controllers and motion-control hardware used to automate factories, warehouses and other operating environments, plus the supporting integrators and software. Industrial robotics is dominated by four Japanese and European incumbents (Fanuc, ABB, Yaskawa and KUKA) and Rockwell on the controls side; warehouse and mobile robotics is younger, more fragmented and has absorbed most of the venture capital. Annual industrial robot installations passed 540,000 globally in 2023 according to IFR data, with China alone installing more than half of new units worldwide.
The sector spans industrial robot arms, mobile robots for warehouses, collaborative robots (cobots), motion control and PLCs, system integrators, and humanoid robotics.
Revenue comes from one-off equipment sales of robots and controllers, recurring service and parts contracts on installed bases, project-based integration revenue, robotics-as-a-service subscription models, and software licences for fleet management and programming tools.
Automation & robotics is part of Industrial technology.
$215B
Global market size
124
Public companies
Key VC investors
Key strategic buyers
How automation & robotics companies monetize?
Automation and robotics companies monetize through equipment sales, recurring service and parts, and robotics-as-a-service subscriptions.
Equipment sales
Capital sales of robot arms, mobile units, controllers and motion hardware to industrial buyers and integrators. The anchor revenue line for ABB, Fanuc, Yaskawa, KUKA and Rockwell.
Service & parts
Annual service contracts, spare parts and refurbishments tied to the installed base. Stable, high-margin recurring revenue that grows with installed units.
Systems integration
Project-based engineering revenue from integrators (ATS, JR Automation, Comau) configuring robots for a specific production line. Margins look like industrial services rather than software.
Robotics-as-a-service
Monthly subscription models in which Locus, Berkshire Grey and warehouse-robot vendors lease robots and charge per pick or per hour. Easier customer adoption, slower payback.
Software subscriptions
Per-seat or per-fleet software for programming, fleet management and digital twin. Fanuc Zero Downtime, ABB RobotStudio Cloud and Rockwell's FactoryTalk sit here.
Professional services
Application engineering and training revenue. Used to win hardware deals and accelerate ROI for end users.
Automation & robotics valuations in May 2026
Public automation & robotics comps trade at 4.0x EV/Revenue. Median revenue multiple across automation & robotics M&A deals was 2.9x in the last 12 months. Median revenue multiple across automation & robotics VC rounds was 49x in the last 12 months.
4.0x
Median EV/Revenue as of May 2026 for public automation & robotics companies
3.0x
Siemens is the highest valued public automation & robotics company based on EV/Revenue (excluding outliers)
2.9x
Median EV/Revenue across automation & robotics M&A deals in the last 12 months
49x
Median EV/Revenue across automation & robotics VC rounds in the last 12 months
Automation & robotics market segments
Major automation and robotics segments include industrial robot arms, mobile and warehouse robotics, and humanoid robots.
Industrial robot arms
Floor-mounted articulated arms used in welding, painting, assembly and material handling. Volume is dominated by automotive and electronics customers. Fanuc (TSE: 6954), ABB (NYSE: ABB), Yaskawa (TSE: 6506) and KUKA (Midea-owned) are the global top four.
Mobile & warehouse robotics
Autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and goods-to-person systems for warehouse fulfilment. Capital intensity per facility is high and the buyer is usually a 3PL or retailer. Symbotic (NASDAQ: SYM), Locus Robotics, AutoStore and Geek+ are the reference points.
Collaborative robots (cobots)
Lower-payload arms designed to work alongside humans without safety cages. Smaller TAM than industrial arms but faster growth. Universal Robots (Teradyne-owned), Techman Robot and Doosan Robotics lead.
Motion control & PLCs
Programmable logic controllers, servo drives, motors and HMI panels that make up the broader factory automation stack. The category many software automation players sit on top of. Rockwell (NYSE: ROK), Siemens, Mitsubishi Electric and Schneider Electric lead.
System integrators
Engineering services firms designing and commissioning robotic and automated production lines for industrial customers. Highly fragmented; the larger ones (ATS Corp, JR Automation, Comau) are getting consolidated by the OEMs themselves.
Humanoid robots
Bipedal general-purpose robots aimed at logistics, manufacturing and eventually services. Still pre-revenue at scale. Boston Dynamics (Hyundai-owned), Figure (raised $675M Series B in 2024 at $2.6B), 1X, Agility Robotics and Apptronik are the funded names.
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Key automation & robotics KPIs to track
Revenue growth, units shipped, installed base and gross margin are the metrics investors track in automation and robotics.
| KPI | Definition |
|---|---|
| Revenue growth | Year-on-year revenue change. The standard top-line metric for industrial OEMs and warehouse-robotics challengers. |
| Units shipped | Robot or AMR shipments in the period. Tracks end-market demand and is the basis for future service and parts revenue. |
| Installed base | Cumulative active robots in the field. Drives recurring service, parts and software revenue. Fanuc, ABB and Yaskawa each report this in the high hundreds of thousands. |
| Gross margin | Separates pure controls and software businesses (45-65%) from mobile robotics fleets and humanoid challengers (often negative until scale). The single most-watched metric for the warehouse-robotics cohort. |
| Recurring revenue % | Share of revenue from service, software and RaaS contracts. The metric the listed OEMs push because it earns higher multiples than pure equipment sales. |
| ARR | Annual recurring revenue from RaaS and software contracts. Standard for Locus, Berkshire Grey-era successors and software-led integrators. |
| Backlog | Signed but undelivered orders. Critical for Symbotic, AutoStore and other multi-quarter-lead-time players. |
| Operating margin | Earnings on revenue. The benchmark for incumbents (Fanuc historically 25%+, ABB 15-17%) versus the typically negative operating margins of warehouse-robot challengers. |
Main automation & robotics players globally
The most active automation and robotics companies and category leaders globally.
| Company | HQ | Overview |
|---|---|---|
Fanuc fanuc.com |  Oshino | World's largest industrial robotics vendor by installed base, with more than 800,000 robots in the field. Listed on TSE as 6954. Famously high operating margins driven by an integrated controls and motors business. |
ABB Robotics new.abb.com |  Zurich | Industrial robotics business within ABB Group (NYSE: ABB). Around 500,000 robots installed; ASEA Brown Boveri pioneered electric industrial robots in the 1970s. Strong in automotive, food and logistics. |
Yaskawa Electric yaskawa.co.jp | Kitakyushu | Industrial robotics and motion control player listed on TSE as 6506. Motoman robot arms and Sigma servo drives are the anchor products. Top-three global supplier to automotive welding and assembly. |
KUKA kuka.com |  Augsburg | German industrial robotics OEM owned by China's Midea since 2017. Strong in automotive body-in-white and aerospace assembly. Delisted in 2022. |
Universal Robots universal-robots.com |  Odense | Pioneered the cobot category. Owned by Teradyne (NASDAQ: TER) since 2015; shipped its 90,000th cobot in 2024. The reference brand in collaborative robotics. |
Rockwell Automation rockwellautomation.com |  Milwaukee | Listed on NYSE as ROK. Largest pure-play industrial automation vendor in the US. Allen-Bradley PLCs, FactoryTalk software and the acquired Plex MES are the anchor lines. |
Symbotic symbotic.com | Wilmington | Warehouse automation system vendor listed on NASDAQ as SYM. Walmart is by far the largest customer; absorbed Berkshire Grey in 2024 as part of a consolidation play in mobile warehouse robotics. |
Boston Dynamics bostondynamics.com | Waltham | Quadruped (Spot) and humanoid (Atlas) robotics developer owned by Hyundai. Launched the all-electric Atlas in 2024 for industrial pilots. Stretch is the commercial warehouse offering. |
Locus Robotics locusrobotics.com | Wilmington | RaaS warehouse fulfilment robotics vendor. Last raised $117M Series F in 2022 at a $2B valuation. Crossed 2 billion lifetime picks across customer sites in 2024. |
Figure AI figure.ai | Sunnyvale | Humanoid robotics company that raised $675M Series B in 2024 from Microsoft, OpenAI Startup Fund, NVIDIA, Jeff Bezos and others at a $2.6B valuation. Pilot deployments at BMW. |
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Key automation & robotics market trends
Humanoid robotics capital surge, China industrial robot dominance and AI foundation models are reshaping automation and robotics right now.
Humanoid robotics capital surge
Figure raised $675M in February 2024 at a $2.6B valuation; 1X raised $100M; Apptronik raised $403M Series A in early 2025 led by B Capital and Capital Factory at over $1B valuation. Tesla's Optimus and Boston Dynamics' electric Atlas added to the noise. Pilot deployments at BMW (Figure) and Mercedes (Apptronik) are early but real. Dated February 2025.
Symbotic-Berkshire Grey consolidation
Symbotic acquired Berkshire Grey for $375M in 2023 and integrated it through 2024, consolidating the mid-market warehouse robotics landscape. The deal followed Berkshire Grey's de-SPAC collapse from a $2.7B peak valuation. Dated January 2024.
China industrial robot dominance
China installed more than half of all new industrial robots globally for the fourth straight year in 2023, per IFR. Domestic Chinese OEMs (Estun, Inovance, Siasun) have grown their domestic share past 50% for the first time, squeezing import volumes from Fanuc, ABB, Yaskawa and KUKA. Dated November 2024.
Rockwell-Plex and the MES land grab
Rockwell's $2.2B acquisition of Plex Systems in 2021 anchored its push from controls into MES software. PTC's ThingWorx, AVEVA's MES (Schneider-owned) and Siemens' Opcenter compete for the same workflow. The category is now the most-fought-over piece of the Industry 4.0 software stack. Dated August 2024.
Reshoring and CHIPS Act tailwinds
The US CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act unlocked $52B in semiconductor and $370B in clean-energy capex. TSMC Arizona, Intel Ohio, Samsung Texas and the GF expansions are buying industrial robots, AMRs and motion hardware at scale. Fanuc, ABB and Rockwell all cited reshoring as a 2024 growth driver. Dated December 2024.
AI foundation models for robotics
Covariant, Skild AI, Physical Intelligence (raised $400M in 2024 led by Jeff Bezos, Lux and Thrive) and NVIDIA's Project GR00T are building generalist robotic foundation models. The bet is that a single model can handle picking, manipulation and mobility across hardware platforms. Most warehouse-robot incumbents have started embedding LLMs into picking and slotting workflows. Dated March 2025.
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