North American robot orders rise 24.8% to 10,989 units in Q3 2026, A3 says

North American companies ordered 10,989 robots valued at $723.5 million in the third quarter of 2026, up 24.8% in units and 26.1% in value from a year earlier, according to Association for Advancing Automation (A3) data released Oct. 28.

A3's figures put the growth in suppliers and new sectors rather than carmakers: automotive component orders rose 90.4% and semiconductor, electronics and photonics orders 97.6%, while automotive OEM orders, up 7.5% in Q3, are still 17% below the year-earlier level through nine months.

A3 links the semiconductor and electronics growth to continued investment in US chip manufacturing and demand for electronics supporting AI, and links life sciences orders, up 38.7%, to investment in domestic pharmaceutical manufacturing. Orders for collaborative robots, or cobots, reached 1,831 units worth $63.8 million, up about 56% in units; they were 16.7% of all units. Through September, cobot orders totaled 4,605 units worth about $178 million, 15.9% of units.

Automotive OEM orders did return to year-over-year growth in the third quarter after falling in the first half, and food and consumer goods orders fell 23.7%. For the first nine months, orders reached 28,984 robots valued at about $1.89 billion, up 9.6% in units and 13.3% in value.

The September ISM Manufacturing PMI was 54.5, a ninth straight month of expansion. Federal Reserve data showed manufacturing output up 0.3% in September.