Robotics

In the established industrial robot market, IFR counted 542,000 industrial robot installations worldwide in 2024, including 85,000 in Europe, in its September 2025 report. These are machines installed during one year, not sales revenue or the total number operating.

The chart below looks at general-purpose robots, including humanoids, rather than conventional factory arms. McKinsey’s May 2026 outlook describes a market still in its infancy and a much larger opportunity by 2040. Reaching that scale requires useful machines that customers can afford to deploy. A component supplier earns only the part of the selling price represented by its products.

Factory trials are becoming more concrete. In February 2026, BMW reported that Figure 02 had handled sheet-metal parts during a ten-month pilot supporting production of over 30,000 X3 cars. That is a customer-reported production application, not evidence that the robot assembled the cars itself.

BMW’s June 2026 update introduced a Figure 03 project for more complex logistics sequencing. For wider use, the system needs to handle changing parts and recover from mistakes without frequent human intervention. Cameras, gripping and control software matter here, but a successful pilot does not automatically become a large equipment order.