Amazon to invest over $100M in a robotics manufacturing plant in Indiana

Amazon plans to invest more than $100 million in a new robotics-manufacturing facility in Greenwood, Indiana, with operations expected to start by 2028, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The plant will be Amazon's fourth robot-making facility. Last month the company announced another robotics hub in Austin, Texas; taken together, the two new sites will double the number of Amazon's robot-manufacturing plants.

What the plant will make

According to Amazon's announcement, the roughly 585,000-square-foot facility will produce components and systems that power the company's fulfillment and robotics network across North America. Advanced fabrication, robotic welding, automated powder coating and assembly will run under one roof, supported by AWS and AI-powered smart manufacturing systems.

The project is expected to create 300 manufacturing and engineering jobs, ranging from CNC operators and welders to manufacturing engineers, quality assurance specialists and controls engineers. Amazon says the roles pay an average of nearly $100,000 a year.

From Kiva Systems to a million robots

Amazon entered warehouse robotics in 2012, when it acquired Kiva Systems for $775 million. Since then it has deployed more than a million robots that sort, lift and move packages inside its warehouses. By Amazon's own account, the machines now operate in more than 300 facilities and assist employees with about 75% of customer orders worldwide.

"We've deployed over a million robots over the last decade, and in that time, we've hired hundreds of thousands of employees that work alongside those robots," said Holly Sullivan, Amazon's vice president of worldwide economic development. The company says its robotics investments have created high-paying skilled jobs and cut the rate of recordable workplace injuries by more than 40%.

Why it matters

The Indiana plant is Amazon's latest move to bring advanced manufacturing in-house rather than rely on outside suppliers. Amazon says it has invested more than $40 billion in Indiana and created over 27,000 jobs in the state since 2008, and that its U.S. robotics operations have manufactured more than a million robots to date. The Greenwood facility is expected to open by 2028.