Many MindedFactory robot purchases in North America jump by a quarter in third quarter
North American companies ordered 10,989 robots worth $723.5 million in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Association for Advancing Automation (A3). That is up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value from Q3 2025, and it makes Q3 the strongest quarter of the year so far. Through September, orders total 28,984 robots worth about $1.89 billion, up 9.6% in units and 13.3% in value.
The mix shifted. Unit orders rose 97.6% in semiconductors, electronics and photonics, 67.7% in plastics and rubber, 38.7% in life sciences and pharma, and 37.0% in metals. Food and consumer goods fell 23.7%. Automotive OEM orders rose 7.5% in Q3 after a weak first half, but remain 17% below last year for the nine-month period. Automotive component suppliers ordered 90.4% more. Collaborative robots made up 1,831 units in Q3, about 56% more than a year earlier, and 16.7% of all units.
For goods, this is the capital-spending side of cheaper production. Robots that are bought now tend to lower unit costs and widen what can be made domestically, and cobots, which are built to work beside people, make automation feasible for smaller and more varied jobs. Cobots were 43.8% of life sciences orders and 36.9% of electronics orders over nine months. The flip side is labor: more automation raises questions about displacement that these order counts don't answer.
Watch whether the pace holds. A3 itself flags higher input costs, trade uncertainty and the timing of large projects. Its attribution of electronics and pharma growth to U.S. semiconductor and domestic pharma investment is its own reading. Orders are not installations or price cuts, and detailed data are limited to press requests and A3 members.
Source: The Robot Report