NEW YORK, July 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Robotics foundation models are poised to transform the automation landscape, creating a global market worth US$150 billion by 2036 as advances in Physical AI enable robots to perform increasingly complex, adaptable tasks that have long resisted automation. According to a new report from global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, the technology is moving beyond traditional industrial robotics, opening new opportunities across manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, healthcare, retail, hospitality, restaurants, and other labor-intensive industries where robots can learn, reason, and manipulate varied and deformable objects with unprecedented robustness.
“Robotics foundation models represent a major shift in what enterprises can realistically automate,” said George Chowdhury, principal analyst at ABI Research. “As these models improve generalization and enable robots to handle more variable tasks, they will open new revenue opportunities across manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, retail, hospitality, and eventually the home.”
ABI Research expects manufacturing to remain the leading near-term opportunity, reaching a US$30 billion TAM by 2036, while warehousing and logistics will account for US$21 billion and healthcare will reach US$16 billion. Restaurants, retail, and hospitality together will represent a further US$27 billion as businesses seek to reduce labor costs and improve operational flexibility with more capable robotic systems.
The market’s growth will depend not only on model innovation, but also on the supporting ecosystem around training, orchestration, and edge deployment. NVIDIA currently leads in on-device robotics compute with Jetson, while cloud providers including AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud are positioned to support model training, simulation, and lifecycle management. Meanwhile, competitors such as Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and Ambarella are building alternative hardware and software stacks for edge deployment.
“Commercial adoption will accelerate first in environments where safety, repeatability, and ROI can be proven most clearly,” Chowdhury said. “That is why collaborative robots and industrial deployments will lead the market before broader expansion into dynamic public environments and domestic use, with lessons from automotive autonomy playing an important role in shaping safety, liability, and deployment frameworks.
“While foundation models are a pivotal technology for enabling humanoid robots, all robot form factors will benefit from the technology including mobile robots, drones, and so-called mobile manipulators—many of these robots will utilize foundation models in the same way that ADAS is used within automotive markets. However, robotics models have the potential to leap-frog automotive in terms of deployment scale due to the large number of controlled environments in which they can deliver ROI.”
These findings are from ABI Research’s Physical AI: Robotics Foundation Models report, part of the company’s Industrial, Collaborative & Commercial Robotics research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights.
About ABI Research
ABI Research is a global technology intelligence firm uniquely positioned at the intersection of technology solution providers and end-market companies. We serve as the bridge that seamlessly connects these two segments by providing exclusive research and expert guidance to drive successful technology implementations and deliver strategies proven to attract and retain customers.
ABI Research是一家全球性的技术情报公司，拥有得天独厚的优势，充当终端市场公司和技术解决方案提供商之间的桥梁，通过提供独家研究和专业性指导，推动成功的技术实施和提供经证明可吸引和留住客户的战略，无缝连接这两大主体。
For more information about ABI Research’s services, contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific, or visit www.abiresearch.com.
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