Bringing Jobs Back To The US Via … Robots? Standard Bots Raises $200 Million

InnovationConsumer TechBringing Jobs Back To The US Via … Robots? Standard Bots Raises $200 MillionByJohn Koetsier,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Journalist, analyst, author, podcaster.Follow AuthorJun 10, 2026, 01:35am EDTStandard Bots announced a $200 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation. The company says it is the largest manufacturer of AI-native industrial robots in the United States.Standard BotsRobots are the bad guys when it comes to jobs, right? But Standard Bots, which today announced a $200 million Series C at a $1 billion valuation, says robots will make American manufacturers more competitive, and that will unlock more jobs.“We’ve gone from 20 million manufacturing workers in 1979 to only 13 million today,” the company said in a press release announcing the new funding. “Manufacturers become more competitive when they put robots to work. And competitiveness is the key that unlocks company growth, job growth, and wage growth.”Standard Bots makes AI-native robot arms and industrial humanoid robots that it says can be taught by demonstrations rather than code. In other words, you show the robot the job; it watches, learns and starts doing the job itself. The pitch is that this collapses the cost and complexity that have kept advanced automation out of reach for most American manufacturers, especially the small and mid-sized shops that make up the long tail of U.S. industry. Customers range from Sunoco, Lockheed Martin, Amazon, NASA and the U.S. Army to hundreds of smaller manufacturers.More growth will unlock more growth, says CEO Evan Beard. And a better future for American manufacturing."AI-native robots are the essential power tool of the 21st century – the tool that will grow American manufacturing and help every worker to be a force at work," he said in a statement. "The quickest way to get to full autonomy is through deployments, collecting real-world data, and iterating a...