Universal Robots introduced its fastest cobot ever, the UR15, earlier in 2025. | Source: The Robot Report
Teradyne Robotics, which includes collaborative robot arm leader Universal Robots (UR) and autonomous mobile robot (AMR) developer Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), reported $75 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2025. The figure marks a 9% increase from Q1 2025, but a 17% decline year over year.
UR remained the primary moneymaker by bringing in $63 million, or 84% of the group’s revenue for the quarter. MiR generated $12 million. The year-over-year decline reflects ongoing challenges in the global automation market, said Teradyne CEO Greg Smith in an earnings call. These challenges include extended sales cycles and cautious capital spending in key manufacturing sectors.
For the first quarter of 2025, Teradyne said its robotics revenue was $69 million. This was down from $98 million in Q4 2024.
Earlier this year, Teradyne Robotics laid off about 10% of its workforce, citing the need to align operations with market conditions. The group has also undergone leadership transitions at both UR and MiR, moves the company said are aimed at sharpening strategic focus and improving execution across both businesses.
The total revenue for Teradyne’s robotics group in 2024 was $365 million, with UR contributing $293 million and MiR $72 million.
“Recall that we executed a structural reorganization that consolidated the customer-facing sales, marketing, and service organizations of UR and MiR in the first quarter of 2025,” Smith said. “In Q2, this new organization delivered 9% quarter on quarter growth, despite persistent difficult market conditions, and we continue to optimize our opex envelope to respond.”
He noted that as part of its strategy to attract large customers, Teradyne Robotics “secured a plan of record decision” from a major company. Smith did not disclose the customer’s name or specify whether the deal involved UR cobots, MiR AMRs, or both. He said this deal is expected to be a “significant growth driver later in 2026.”
Smith added that “the team” plans to open a manufacturing operation in the U.S. to best serve customers in this region.
Robot suppliers look to China market
In December, UR opened a production facility in China, with new models for that market, the UR7e and the UR12e. This is the first overseas production facility for Odense, Denmark-based UR and a major step to enhance its strategy in China, which has long been the world’s leading adopter of industrial robots.
“We believe the Chinese market is turning the corner,” Teradyne Robotics noted at the time. “We believe that segment now values better-performing, quality ecosystem-based offerings, and we’re building on that hypothesis. We have big growth plans.”
The dominance of China’s robotics market will be a focus of RoboBusiness on Oct. 15 and 16 in Santa Clara, Calif., the premier event for robotics developers and produced by The Robot Report.
Georg Stieler, head of robotics & automation at Stieler Technology & Market Advisory, will deliver a talk called “Global Implications of China’s Robotics Push” that will examine the key factors behind China’s momentum in robotics and AI, including market dynamics, current capabilities, and breakthroughs in next-generation systems.
He will also explore the structural challenges still facing Chinese robotics companies, and how early industrialized countries might respond to remain competitive. You can view the entire RoboBusiness agenda here.
Teradyne Robotics expects continued headwinds
“While the long-term drivers of AI and onshoring in advanced robotics remain intact, near-term macro factors continue to be a headwind,” said Sanjay Mehta, chief financial officer at Teradyne. “Our second quarter operating results were better than the first quarter, and we expect the second half of the year to be better than the first half.”
“Despite this, due to the weak end market, we had lower volumes yielding a lower gross margin,” he said. “We expect the weak market to persist and do not expect Robotics to break-even this year.”
Teradyne isn’t alone in navigating financial headwinds. Yaskawa, another major robotics provider, recently reported a 2.5% year-over-year revenue decline, citing the impact of foreign exchange rates. Despite the drop, Yaskawa cited continued global demand for automation, with large-scale automotive projects in South Korea and stronger general industrial sales in Japan helping to stabilize performance.
FANUC said sales for its Robomachine division dropped 24.2% quarter over quarter, while its Robo division dropped 7.1% quarter over quarter. ABB also reported softness in its Robotics and Discrete Automation business, pointing to delays in customer investment decisions tied to tariff-related uncertainty.
The report interviewed/focused on global robot makers and their financial performance. However, it missed the big growth of Chinese robot makers in the first half of the year. Please remember that China is the single largest robot market with over 50% of world demand. Many Chinese robot companies had 20+% growth in the first half of the year at the expense of those global brands. The robot shipments in China grew ~20%, mostly filled by Chinese brands such as Innovance, Estun, Aubo, Jaka etc. You may want to include in your report/analysis more China market data. After all, it’s more than half of the world market.