In a Race With China, German Robots Are Outnumbered 14 to 1
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/business/robots-china-germany-factories.html
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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/24/business/robots-china-germany-factories.html
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Maybe time Europe took reindustrialisation in her hands?
My employer bought some robots recently. A quote from KUKA was about €40k per arm, while a Chinese brand was €10k per arm. Guess which option management went with.
I’m not sure what can be done about this. There’s just no competing on the cost of labor.
Kuka, formally known as Reis Robotics. Reis Robotics was bought from Kuka (Chinese Midea Group). They slaughtered everything out of Reis and then sold it. It’s now Reis Robotics again, but the know how is now in Midea’s hands…
What can be done about this is banning companies from selling out to China in the first place and strengthening patent laws globally. China does not participate in the free market, it just abuses it. Selling off Kuka should‘ve never been allowed. We know China would never allow a sellout of key technologies either.
Yeah, but you get into pretty slippery questions about what “selling out to China” means. It’s not like the Chinese government comes straight to you and says “hi”. Some random corporation could be owned by companies that are owned by companies that have their strings pulled by whoever.
Really, if you want to stunt China’s progress, you cut off access to universities and experts by Chinese nationals, and cut off export of specific physical goods. Something like this has been done with the most advanced semiconductors, already.
It’s weird, they start by talking about manufacturing robots, and then switch to installing robots. Those are two very different things. There’s more stuff Chinese people are doing by hand, which they could automate, so sure. German factories are going to be pretty automated already.
It even mentions:
You start with textiles, then move to plastic crap, then keep moving up the specialised and high-tech food chain. That’s the usual way industrialisation works. China is making some of it’s own robots, but you can be pretty sure it’s mostly the cheapest, most basic kind. And the tools to make those robots probably themselves come from Japan or Germany.