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MANUFACTURINGMAG

Feature Coverage

Manufacturing features and analysis

Longer-form reporting on plant operations, manufacturing technology, workforce strategy, and capital decisions.

AllSupply ChainSemiconductorsAutomation & RoboticsWorkforce DevelopmentAutomotiveAerospace & DefenseIndustrial IoTAdditive Manufacturing
Automation & RoboticsJuly 19, 2026

Before Robots Can Build Cars, Someone Has to Build the Robots: Boston Dynamics' $100M, 1,000-Job Bet on Manufacturing Atlas at Scale

Boston Dynamics is spending roughly $100M on a 323,000-sq-ft Waltham center to build Atlas, Spot, and Stretch under one roof. The real question isn't whether humanoids will work the line — it's who can manufacture the robots at scale, and whether U.S. assembly can de-risk a thin, China-concentrated actuator and reducer supply base before the labor-gap thesis meets real production data.

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Automation & RoboticsJuly 15, 2026

BMW Just Put Figure's 03 Humanoid on Live Logistics at Spartanburg — the Same Line Where the 02 Helped Build 30,000 X3s

BMW is moving Figure AI's Figure 03 humanoid onto live just-in-sequence logistics at Plant Spartanburg — the same facility where a Figure 02 pilot loaded 90,000+ parts across 30,000-plus X3 builds. It's the most production-validated third-party humanoid deployment on a U.S. automotive line, and a clear read on what these machines credibly take over today: kitting and sequencing, not line-rate assembly.

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Automation & RoboticsJuly 6, 2026

Humanoids Hit Wall Street the Easy Way: Agility's $2.5B SPAC Skips the Roadshow — and Foxconn's $200M PIPE Is the Real Vote

Agility Robotics is going public at a ~$2.5B valuation by merging with Michael Klein's Churchill Capital Corp XI — a de-SPAC that skips a traditional IPO's pricing gauntlet just as investors demand proof of humanoid unit economics. For operators, the structure and the strategic money matter more than the headline number: Foxconn is leading the $200M+ PIPE in a machine it could itself deploy.

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Automation & RoboticsJuly 5, 2026

The '25% Tax on Robots': How Section 232's June Machinery Rules Hit the Imported Machine Tools Factories Need to Automate

A U.S. plant orders an imported CNC or robotic cell to close a labor gap—and now pays Section 232 duty on the machine's full value because it contains covered steel and aluminum. Proclamation 11032 hardwires a reshoring paradox: the policy meant to rebuild American production is taxing the automation capital that makes domestic output competitive. Here's what actually changed, the rate math, and the bigger tariff still to come.

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Automation & RoboticsJuly 2, 2026

Hyundai Is Building a Factory for 30,000 Humanoids a Year — Boston Dynamics' Bet That the Labor-Gap Fix Is Now a Capex Problem, Not a Software One

At CES 2026, Hyundai Motor Group — which owns roughly 80% of Boston Dynamics — anchored a $26B U.S. investment that includes a robotics plant sized for up to 30,000 humanoids a year. The real signal for operators: a humanoid vendor is verticalizing into volume manufacturing, moving the bottleneck from capability to unit economics.

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