The world has about 3 – 3.5 million robots right now. The U.S. has 381,964 of those, about 12.7 percent of the world’s installations. Half of the robots, about 191,000, are in automobile manufacturing. Of those robots, about half or 95,500, are doing welding in the automotive plants. That’s a lot of robots and a lot of welding. We have many, but we need many more and the robot companies continue to build up to meet demand.
If we go to the opposite side of the world, we see amazing growth. While the U.S. has about one robot for every 50 workers, Asian countries and companies are more committed. South Korea, for example, has one robot for every 11 workers.
What about China? The last 10 years have been very good for robotics. Here’s an interesting stat: in 2013, robot installations in China came to 25 percent of the world’s installations. Ten years later, China’s robot installations account for more than half of the world’s installations. Truly astounding how they could have a quarter of the world’s robot installations, then double that percentage over 10 years’ time.
As they say on commercials, but wait—there’s more! Just yesterday (I am writing on March 26) I received news about China investing 1 trillion yuan (about $138 billion) in robotics and high-tech industries over the next 20 years. Excerpts from the release follow:
“China’s National Development and Reform Commission has announced to set up a state-backed venture capital fund focused on robotics, AI and cutting-edge innovation…This initiative aims to continue China’s technology-driven success story in manufacturing.”
This initiative comes from the 14th National People’s Congress (NPC), as it held its third session ending March 2025. The “14th Five-Year Plan for Robot Industry Development” is included in the “14th Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China.”
Now, on to the support work necessary for robots and AI installations.
Robots, including those cool autonomous mobile robots, work on electricity. As for the needs of AI, at first glance it seems like a no-brainer. After all, intelligence doesn’t need electricity—or does it? Yes, loads of it, used in protected and energy-hungry hosting centers. We can look to search engines to get a preview of what large-scale AI solutions will need. Google’s distributed model of search, for example, employs millions of servers in hosting centers around the world. We can only wonder what might be required for future AI models.
It is the reliance on electricity that makes its generation and transmission a strategic enterprise. China leads the world in electrical consumption and provision. Because its hydro power is in the sparsely populated western regions, and the coal (which provides 60 percent of its power) is in the northern regions, and the cities and manufacturing are in the east and south, something had to be done to traverse great expanses with efficiency. And so, the country has invested in Ultra High Voltage technology that can send either AC or DC over great distances.
In the U.S., we still don’t have a true “grid,” as sections of the country’s transmission network remain disconnected from one another. It’s harder to maintain electrical levels reliably in certain geographies because they’re stuck with their own capabilities of generating and transmitting power. We see constrictions in growth if we remain status quo.
Now consider this:
- The CAGR for robotics (more shop-floor electrical needs) is 16.35%;
- The CAGR for AI (those power-hungry server farms) is 35.9%; and
- The CAGR for electrical vehicles (huge demand, a long way to go/build out) is 23%.
These growth rates are staggeringly high. These three undeniable business evolutions attack from three directions: integration into manufacturing/automobile (robotics), large-scale, distributed, conditioned electricity provisioning (AI), and the booming growth of residential network and a new commercial network all at the same time (electric vehicles).
While we’re mostly concerned with manufacturing, it must be noted that the at-home charging of electric vehicles will put quite a dent in people’s budgets and in the electricity provisioning. I’m guessing that the grid will be stretched beyond its limit on the residential side. (Also, states typically charge 50% per kilowatt hour on the residential side.)
The end result is, we will not only pay for robots and AI and EVs, we will also pay for powering all of these wonders of our modern age—and upgrading the electrical system that runs them.