Industrial Automation & Cobots

The Board of Investment traveled to Seoul on September 28-29, 2026, to discuss investment plans with three leading South Korean companies: Hyundai, T-Robotics and COSMAX, and to hold talks with the Federation of Korean Industries, or FKI, on expanding investment cooperation between the two countries. BOI Secretary-General Narit Therdsteerasukdi said the roadshow aims to attract new investment and to build on the investments of South Korean companies already based in Thailand, moving them toward higher value-added activities including research and development, smart manufacturing and advanced technology. Hyundai Motor, which has received BOI promotion to build a battery electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery plant in Samut Prakan province and began actual production in May 2026, discussed ways to upgrade its investment toward advanced technology activities and to link Thai suppliers into its supply chain. T-Robotics, a South Korean industrial robotics specialist and a key partner of Applied Materials, was invited to invest in Thailand to serve the semiconductor and advanced electronics industries, and the company is interested in supporting a high-skilled workforce development program known as Skill Bridge. COSMAX, which researches, develops and manufactures cosmetics for leading global brands and has invested in Thailand since 2018, is investing an additional more than 1.8 billion baht to build a new plant and expand capacity; it has already hired more than 500 Thai workers and plans to raise that to more than 700 next year. FKI said South Korean companies are focusing on expanding investment in three main areas: semiconductors, robotics or physical AI, and artificial intelligence data centers. South Korean investment in ASEAN has more than doubled since 2010 to about 10 billion US dollars a year. From 2021 through the first half of 2026, South Korea submitted 167 investment promotion applications in Thailand with a combined value of more than 65.9 billion baht, mostly in electronics and electrical appliances, machinery and automation systems, metal products and materials, and chemicals.

Inbolt, a Paris-based company that gives industrial robots real-time 3D vision and AI-driven control, has raised $12.5M in a funding round led by new investor Shift4Good, bringing its total funding to $34M. Bridges Climate Transition Partners joined the round, alongside existing investors BNP Paribas Développement and Ora Global. The capital will fund Inbolt's expansion in the US, where it opened a Detroit office in 2026, and in APAC, as well as its entry into two new sectors: data centers and electronics manufacturing. Inbolt's hardware-agnostic software runs natively on major robot platforms including FANUC, ABB, KUKA, Yaskawa, Comau and Universal Robots, and is already deployed on more than 200 robots in over 100 factories across three continents, with clients including Bosch, Beko, Flex, Ford, Stellantis and Toyota. Founded in 2019 by Rudy Cohen, Albane Dersy and Louis Dumas, Inbolt was ranked third on the Sifted 100: France & Benelux on the strength of a two-year revenue CAGR of over 500%.

Omron announced its first-quarter results for the fiscal year ending March 2027, posting a sharp profit increase driven by its control equipment business. Revenue came to 209.8 billion yen, up 26.1% year on year, operating profit was 18.8 billion yen, up 226.0%, and profit attributable to owners of the parent was 10.6 billion yen, up 131.1%. The control equipment business, the main driver, saw first-quarter revenue of 131.1 billion yen, up 37.2% year on year, while segment profit doubled from a year earlier to 21.2 billion yen, with a profit margin of 16.2%. Meanwhile, the social systems business posted revenue of 24.2 billion yen, down 2.0%, and barely any profit, meaning the company's sharp overall recovery depends heavily on control equipment as its single pillar. In response, the full-year operating profit forecast was raised from 62 billion yen at the start of the year to 80 billion yen, up 41.7% from the previous year, and the net profit forecast was also raised from 27.5 billion yen to 40.5 billion yen.

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd. is establishing a new plant in the Maharashtra Bidkin Industrial Area to expand its business in India's growing automobile market. The plant will produce large interior and exterior products such as bumpers and instrument panels, with operations scheduled to start in the first half of 2029. It will be built as a branch plant of Toyoda Gosei Group company Toyoda Gosei South India Pvt. Ltd. and will be Toyoda Gosei's eighth location in India. The investment is approximately INR 5.758 billion, or roughly JPY 9.3 billion, and the plant is expected to employ approximately 570 people by 2030. The new facility will use the latest large molding machines, IoT and DX production management systems, and smart automated processes combining collaborative robots and karakuri technology, and it is being built to meet increasing production capacity of Japanese automakers, the company's main customers.

Toyota Motor Corporation estimates that modernizing its factories could require about 1 trillion yen, or $6.4 billion, annually from 2028, covering Toyota, group companies, and major suppliers. The company told investors that roughly 400,000 robots, including humanoid and conventional machines, could be needed to replace existing equipment and add new automation capabilities, spanning industrial robots, automated logistics, and human-robot collaboration. Toyota has not committed to spending the full amount or specified how long the investment would continue. The figure would be roughly three times Toyota's FY2026 additions to fixed assets of 1.88 trillion yen, though it includes group companies and major suppliers and is therefore not directly comparable with Toyota's consolidated capital spending. Toyota generated 4.74 trillion yen in operating cash flow in FY2026, and its operating margin declined to 7.4% in FY2026 from 10.0% in FY2025 and 11.9% in FY2024. Hyundai plans to deploy humanoid robots at a U.S. plant from 2028, while Chinese automakers including BYD, Geely and Chery continue to pressure Toyota's joint ventures in China.

Boeing Co. has told its suppliers they must shift away from traditional manual processes as the airplane manufacturer works to increase production rates. Chief Technology Officer Lane Ballard said at an industry event on Wednesday that the aerospace sector needs to transition from its historical approach to modern manufacturing techniques, noting that aerospace used to be a craftsman business that was hand-built and hand-riveted. Ballard said suppliers need to understand they must move away from craftsman thinking and become versed in autonomy, and that Boeing and its suppliers require engineers with expertise in software, autonomy, artificial intelligence and rapid design-to-manufacturing processes. Boeing and competitor Airbus SE are working to increase production to address large order backlogs, though both face supply chain bottlenecks affecting key components. Increasing 737 Max production rates remains important for Boeing as it works to reduce debt and compete with Airbus in the single-aisle aircraft market, and Ballard said the industry will need approximately 40,000 commercial airplanes over the next 20 years. Last week, Boeing Chief Executive Officer Kelly Ortberg said the company needs more time to stabilize 737 production at 47 planes per month, citing challenges in in-house wing production, but added that the supply chain is in pretty good shape to move to the next rate next year.

Pirelli's board of directors has approved a multi-year investment plan worth approximately €1bn, or $1.14bn, to expand its tyre manufacturing facility in Rome, Georgia, in the US. The plan passed by majority vote, though three Sinochem-nominated board members, Zhang Haitao, Xi Xiaohong and Wang Kun, voted against it. Implementation will begin in phases from 2027, lifting the plant's annual output capacity to around six million car tyres by 2033, with work unfolding across two stages: an initial phase ramping up robotised manufacturing using the newest version of Pirelli's proprietary modular integrated robotised system, followed by a fully automated conventional facility for premium products that will contribute another three million tyres in annual capacity once fully operational. The upgrade will incorporate Cyber Tyre technology and is projected to generate roughly 1,000 new jobs, and Pirelli said it has secured clearance from the US Bureau of Industry and Security to sell its Cyber Tyre system within the US market following governance changes introduced under Italy's Golden Power Decree. Pirelli said the plan will leave its 2026 targets unaffected, with the capex-to-revenue ratio for 2027-2033 expected to stay broadly consistent with prior periods while maintaining the group's cash generation; the company has operated in Georgia since 2002. In July, Chinese state-owned Sinochem sold a 14% stake in Pirelli to Lumina Crown, an investment vehicle controlled by Czech businessman Michal Strnad, cutting its holding from 34.1% to 20.1%.

Boston Dynamics officially opened its Robotics Metaplant Application Center at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America outside Savannah, Georgia on Monday, transitioning from pilot operations that began in June to full-scale operations. The center serves as a test bed and training center for integrating Atlas humanoids across Hyundai's automotive factories, with Boston Dynamics training the robots to take over repetitive parts sequencing and heavy-lifting tasks over the next few years and component assembly by 2030. Boston Dynamics, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hyundai in July, said it plans to begin exploring use cases for Atlas in other industry sectors next year, and will move into a new building at the Georgia site that will make its test bed and training center 10 times its current size. The center is a key part of Hyundai's larger strategy unveiled in January to restructure its manufacturing environments for humans to work safely alongside robots; Hyundai initially plans to deploy 25,000 Atlas units across its global plants, including Kia factories, over the next few years, and will establish a U.S. facility capable of producing 30,000 robots per year, with a location not disclosed. Separately, the Toyota Group aims to deploy close to 400,000 robots to update its aging factories and supplier network, starting in 2028 with 150,000 units across Toyota Motor Corp. and the Toyota Group plus 250,000 units at various suppliers, a total that includes replacement of existing robots and new units such as humanoids; Toyota's factory automation efforts could cost up to $6.4 billion per year, according to Reuters.

Luck Stone announced in mid-September 2026 that it had expanded its collaboration with Caterpillar to roll out autonomous hauling technology to two additional Virginia quarries, building on a site where autonomous Cat trucks have already moved more than 3.50 billion tons without reported injuries. The expansion includes the first-ever deployment of Caterpillar's autonomous haulage on Cat 775 trucks, and the company is pairing the automation with workforce skill development to address quarry safety and productivity challenges. The move reinforces Caterpillar's broader push into autonomy and AI, which analysts tie to higher quality recurring revenue, and follows the company's August update highlighting record backlog and heavy investment in digital and automation. Caterpillar's narrative projects $94.5 billion revenue and $17.4 billion earnings by 2029, with a $970.37 fair value implying 20% upside, while some of the most optimistic analysts already assumed revenues above US$112,200,000,000 and earnings near US$20,700,000,000 by 2029. Investors are still weighing rising tariffs and pricing pressure against the pace at which digital and service income can scale.

Analog Devices' Industrial segment revenue reached $1.97 billion in third-quarter fiscal 2026, up 53% year over year and 10% sequentially, representing 49% of total company revenues. The company expects Industrial revenues to increase at a high-single-digit sequential rate in the upcoming quarter, with growth supported by automation, factory modernization, robotics and reshoring, as well as energy demand from grid modernization and electrification. ADI's ATE and aerospace and defense businesses are its key secular growth drivers, while much of the broader Industrial business remains below historical consumption levels and customers have yet to materially rebuild inventories. Analog Devices competes with Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics in the Industrial segment, including in industrial signal chains, precision sensing, power management, industrial MCUs, motor drivers and sensors. Shares of ADI have gained 33.5% year to date compared with the Semiconductor - Analog and Mixed industry's growth of 28.2%, and the stock trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 9.71X versus the industry's average of 7.51X.

Cargill is investing Bt2bn ($60m) to expand its cooked poultry operations in Thailand, adding automation and AI across its production network. The US-based meat giant said the package includes a new automated production line for cooked chicken products at its poultry site in Saraburi, near Bangkok, with completion set for an unspecified date in 2028. Work is already underway on a 30,000-metric-ton grain silo for chicken feed at Cargill's facility in Nakhon Ratchasima province, due for completion in December. With the Saraburi investment, cooked poultry volume is expected to rise to around 160,000 metric tons, generating Bt25bn in additional export revenue and creating 300 local jobs. Cargill said some of the funds will go to advanced technologies such as AI, deployed over the next two years for data processing and food quality and safety management, while Watcharapon Prasopkiatpoka, Cargill's VP and poultry managing director for APAC, cited growing global demand for high-quality protein. The investment comes as Cargill closed a mince beef plant in Wisconsin this year with the loss of about 221 jobs, and shuttered a turkey facility in Springdale, Arkansas, last year.