North American robot orders increased by 24.8% in the third quarter.

What it means

A3, the Association for Advancing Automation, reported that North American customers ordered 10,989 robots worth $723.5 million in Q3 2026, a 24.8% jump in units year over year. The data point to broadened automation demand, with particularly large increases in semiconductors/electronics/photonics (up 97.6%), automotive components, and plastics/rubber; for the first nine months of 2026, orders reached 28,984 units worth about $1.89 billion.

Accuracy & sourcesGrounded

The claim comes from A3's quarterly robot-order statistics, distributed via a Business Wire press release; The Robot Report is a secondary story reporting those same figures, and they match across multiple outlets. As an industry-association press release the underlying data is credible but not independently audited.

How new

This is genuinely new: A3's Q3 2026 order figures were published on October 28, 2026, just before this item.

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