From the Factory Floor: 6 Robotics Stocks to Know

Below, we highlight six companies in the ROBO Global Robotics and Automation Index (ROBO) that showcase a different side of the robotics story than you often hear in the news. Some have reported recently. Others are reporting soon. Taken together, they span the entire globe and are involved in almost every product you use. These are not companies you normally see trending on X.  

See more: ROBO Index-Linked Assets Double as Investors Pivot to Physical AI

If you want to understand industrial robotics, start with FANUC. Founded in 1956 as part of Fujitsu and spun out as an independent company in 1972, FANUC is the company that automated the machines that make the machines. It commands the top global market share in CNC (computerized numerical control) systems and industrial robots, and its yellow machines are embedded in manufacturing facilities across automotive, aerospace, electronics, and more.

In August 2023, it became the first industrial robot manufacturer to ship a cumulative one million robots. Today, with over a million units running factory floors across more than 100 countries, FANUC’s record FY2025 results provide a clear blueprint of where industrial automation capital is flowing.

In its fiscal year ending March 2026, FANUC posted record net sales of JPY 857 billion, up 8% year over year, with operating margin improving 150 basis points to 21.4%. For fiscal 2026, management guided 6% further sales growth and margin expansion to 23.3%. 

The drivers: strong factory automation demand in China and the Americas, and continued investment from customers navigating persistent labor shortages. FANUC’s tariff commentary is notable. After initial capital investment hesitancy, management said companies with sufficient liquidity are now investing again, partly because labor shortages in the U.S. show no sign of easing.

(ABB) is one of the foundational names in industrial automation. The Swiss-headquartered company spans robotics and discrete automation, electrification, process automation, and motion control. Its products are embedded in factories, power grids, data centers, ports, and electric vehicle infrastructure across 100 countries. If FANUC owns the CNC and robot controller layer, ABB owns much of the electrical infrastructure that powers the machines FANUC, and other ROBO constituents in the Manufacturing and Industrial Automation subsector controls.

That context makes its Q1 2026 results worth reading carefully. ABB posted orders of $11.3 billion against a consensus of $9.77 billion, beating it by more than $1.5 billion and up 32% year over year. Revenue grew 18%. Free cash flow hit a Q1 record of $1.3 billion. Management raised full-year guidance, targeting high single-digit to low double-digit revenue growth for 2026. The standout driver: electrification, where data center-related demand grew triple digits.

The same AI infrastructure buildout pulling through demand for Koh Young’s inspection systems and Han’s Laser’s processing equipment is simultaneously driving explosive demand for the electrical switchgear, power distribution, and automation systems that ABB makes. The factories building AI hardware need ABB products to run. The data centers running AI need ABB products to stay powered. Electrification is core to the supply and demand of robotics and AI. 

Han’s Laser is China’s dominant laser processing equipment manufacturer and one of the world’s largest. The company’s machines cut, weld, mark, and process materials across electronics, automotive, new energy, and semiconductor manufacturing. It is the industrial laser equivalent of infrastructure.

Its 2025 annual report, released earlier this month, tells a similar story. Revenue hit $2.67 billion, up 27% year over year, a three-year high. Core operating profit, excluding non-recurring gains, surged 82%. Q4 2025 revenue was up 18.55% quarter over quarter, the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential improvement. The growth drivers tell you exactly where intelligent manufacturing capital is flowing: AI server infrastructure, new energy, and semiconductor domestic substitution across China. Looking ahead, management explicitly called out embodied intelligence as a 2026 opportunity. 

Most people have never heard of Koh Young. That is a mistake. The South Korean company is the global leader in 3D measurement-based inspection systems. In practice, that means Koh Young’s machines sit on electronics manufacturing lines around the world and verify, with sub-micron precision, that every solder joint, every component placement, and every semiconductor package is exactly where it should be. No inspection, no yield. No yield, no product.

Last week, Koh Young reported Q1 2026 results that deserve more attention than they got. Revenue of 72.7 billion won was up 42% year over year, a record first quarter. Operating profit jumped 209%. Net profit jumped 389%. The growth came from two simultaneous drivers: expanded sales of 3D semiconductor packaging inspection equipment to what the company described as a global No.1 AI data center optical communications module customer, and surging demand for its AI smart factory software across the same customer base. Both pillars grew at the same time. The company said that dynamic is exactly what they expect to continue.

IPG Photonics (IPGP) invented the modern fiber laser. The Massachusetts-based company builds the high-power laser sources that sit inside cutting, welding, and materials processing systems across manufacturing globally. Where Han’s Laser makes the machine, IPG makes the engine inside the machine.

IPG does not report Q1 2026 until May 5, but its Q4 2025 results, released in February, made clear the recovery is real. Revenue of $274.5 million was up 17.2% year over year, beating consensus by a wide margin. The stock jumped over 35% on that print. Management guided Q1 2026 revenue of $235 to $265 million, acknowledging ongoing tariff uncertainty. The underlying demand driver is the same one running through this entire piece: manufacturers building out AI infrastructure, new energy capacity, and precision automation are buying more laser processing equipment. As a bonus, they are now seeing new demand from utilization in medical and even counter-drone technology that feels a bit like Star Wars.

Microchip Technology (MCHP) is the backbone of embedded control in industrial robotics. Its microcontrollers, FPGAs, and analog chips are inside motor drives, robotic arms, sensors, and automation controllers across the industrial stack. When a robot moves, there is often a Microchip part deciding how.

Microchip spent most of 2024 and the first half of 2025 working through one of the worst inventory corrections in the semiconductor industry, which appears to have escaped from the bottom. In Q3 fiscal 2026 (the quarter ended December 31, 2025), revenue hit $1.186 billion, up 15.6% year over year and well above guidance. Non-GAAP gross margins recovered from 52% at the trough to 60.5%. Management guided Q4 fiscal 2026 revenue of approximately $1.26 billion at the midpoint, up 29.8% year over year. CEO Steve Sanghi called it a broad-based recovery across end markets, with industrials leading. 

These six companies touch different parts of the robotics and automation stack. CNC and robot controllers. Electrical infrastructure and power systems. Laser processing and materials manufacturing. Precision inspection. Embedded semiconductors. Precise robot arms and manipulation. 

Capital is coming back into industrial automation. The AI infrastructure buildout is pulling through demand for intelligent manufacturing equipment, not just data center hardware. Labor economics are reinforcing the automation case in the Americas and across Asia. Electrification is the connective tissue binding it all together. And companies that held margins through the cycle are now positioned to expand them as volumes return.

The continued march of Robotics as a fundamental part of our modern world has been the thesis since the inception of the ROBO Index back in 2013. What is clarifying right now is the breadth of confirmation. Across the world, the same buildout is showing up in orders, revenue, margins, and guidance. 

The factory floor is speaking, are you listening? 

ROBO is the underlying index for the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation ETF (ROBO), the L&G ROBO Global Robotics and Automation UCITS ETF (ROBO.LN), and the Global X ROBO Global Robotics & Automation ETF (ROBO.AU). 

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VettaFi is the index provider for ROBO ETFs, for which it receives an index licensing fee. However, ROBO ETFs are not issued, sponsored, endorsed, or sold by VettaFi. VettaFi and its affiliates have no obligation or liability in connection with the issuance, administration, marketing, or trading of ROBO ETFs.