American manufacturing is entering one of its most transformative decades. While recent years have brought supply chain turbulence, skilled labor shortages, and global uncertainty, a new industrial era is taking shape, one powered by reshoring, digital transformation, and smart automation.

From semiconductor fabs to energy equipment and food production, manufacturers are re-investing in U.S. operations. Federal initiatives such as the Build America, Buy America Act, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are driving hundreds of billions of dollars in capital projects. Together with long-term trends in electrification, AI, and sustainability, these investments are influencing how, and where, things are made.

For Power/mation customers, this momentum presents both opportunity and challenge: greater demand, higher expectations for productivity, and a new urgency to build smarter, safer, and more connected operations.

Structural tailwinds that favor automation

1) Industrial policy and mega-project investment

Three policy pillars are reshaping the U.S. industrial base for a decade:

  • CHIPS and Science Act: $50B in programs to catalyze domestic semiconductor R&D and manufacturing, with multi-billion-dollar awards now flowing to new fabs and advanced packaging. This is seeding long-cycle orders for automation, cleanrooms, motion control, and testing.
  • Inflation Reduction Act (IRA): Enhanced credits (including §45X and domestic-content bonuses) reward U.S. production of clean-energy components and the use of U.S.-made inputs in projects, favoring domestic factories for solar, wind, batteries, switchgear, and power electronics. Treasury’s January 2025 guidance clarified bonus structures, adding momentum to onshoring of components.
  • Reshoring wave: Announced reshoring/FDI manufacturing jobs totaled roughly 244,000 in 2024, with cumulative totals since 2010 exceeding 1.7 million—a visible driver of new plant builds and brownfield expansions. Texas led state totals in 2024. These projects push demand for robotics, conveyors, safety systems, and digital integration.
2) Automation to solve the talent squeeze

Even with hiring cooling in 2025, manufacturing still faces multi-year demographic pressure (retirements outpacing entrants) and persistent skills mismatches. Deloitte’s 2025 Smart Manufacturing survey highlights talent acquisition and up-skilling as top obstacles—conditions that historically accelerate automation and connected-worker investments.

3) The electricity + AI super-cycle

AI data centers, electrification of transport/industry, and grid modernization are creating new, automation-intensive factories for electrical equipment, power distribution, and thermal management, as well as retrofit work in existing plants. Suppliers are expanding U.S. capacity to meet demand for switchgear, panels, thermal solutions, and UPS. Expect sustained CapEx in this cluster through the decade.

What’s changing on the factory floor

Robotics: higher installed base, broader use cases

The U.S. has reached a record operational stock of industrial robots, part of a ~520k-unit installed base across the Americas as of 2023, even as 2024 installations moderated globally. The medium-term path is still upward, expanding beyond automotive into electronics, metals, food & beverage, and logistics. For integrators and distributors, the growth is in application depth, bin-picking, machine tending, packaging, inline inspection, often coupled with vision, safety, and low-code orchestration.

Software-defined automation and AI

Manufacturers are moving from isolated cells to connected systems: PLC/IPC convergence, edge analytics, digital twins, and AI-assisted quality. NIST’s AI Risk Management Framework (RMF) and its generative AI profile provide practical guidance for deploying AI responsibly on the plant floor, which is good news for regulated sectors and defense suppliers that must evidence governance and risk controls as they scale AI.

Cybersecurity hardening (CMMC and beyond)

Defense-adjacent manufacturers face a three-year phased rollout of the DoD’s CMMC 2.0 regime beginning November 10, 2025. This pushes formal security controls (and audits at higher levels) into supplier networks, affecting IT/OT segmentation, asset inventory, logging, and incident response. For automation projects, that means secure-by-design architectures and vendors whose devices and platforms align with NIST/DFARS expectations.

Demand hotspots (2026–2030)

  1. Semiconductors & advanced packaging
    CHIPS-funded fabs and OSAT facilities will continue ordering precision motion, high-end controls, machine vision, vacuum handling, and cleanroom automation. Supply chains around chemicals, ultrapure water, and metrology equipment will echo that demand. Expect multi-year waves as projects reach equipment fit-out.
  2. Energy & electrification equipment
    IRA-driven build-outs of solar modules, inverters, transformers, cabling, and battery components will expand. Domestic-content bonuses tie project economics to U.S. manufacturing, supporting new lines for lamination, winding, potting, and continuous testing, all prime ground for motion and inspection automation.
  3. Automotive & e-mobility
    EV momentum cooled from its 2021–2023 pace, but retooling and platform standardization continue. Expect selective investments in battery modules/packs, e-axles, and power electronics, with a bias toward flexible automation and traceability.
  4. Food & beverage / life sciences
    Defensive sectors continue upgrading for throughput, hygiene, serialization, and workforce coverage, consistent adopters of cobots, vision-guided pick/pack, and modular conveyance.
  5. Appliances & durable goods reshoring
    Announcements to relocate SKUs back to U.S. plants underscore a trend toward regionalized production often paired with modernized lines heavy on robotics and vision.

Industry Applications on the Rise

Power and Electrification Equipment

Manufacturers producing switchgear, transformers, and battery systems are investing heavily in automation to meet unprecedented demand. Rittal’s enclosures, ABB drives, and Phoenix Contact power solutions form the foundation of these next-generation facilities.

Semiconductors and Electronics

Festo motion systems, Turck I/O, and Banner inspection technology are key components in the precision environments needed for wafer handling and assembly. Horner’s OCS controllers and Phoenix Contact networking round out these integrated cells.

Food, Beverage, and Life Sciences

Automation is solving labor and sanitation challenges with hygienic Festo actuators, Banner sensors, and Turck IO-Link valves installed in Rittal stainless enclosures designed for washdown conditions.

Equipment Modernization

Legacy equipment can’t be ignored. Quick-payback retrofits, such as Horner controls, Phoenix Contact CAPAROC power rails, or Banner safety packages, are helping facilities boost performance without major downtime or investment.

Building a Smarter Manufacturing Ecosystem – Let’s Power Progress Together

The next five years may redefine what “Made in America” means. Automation will not just reassign labor, it will enable agile teams to produce more, with higher quality and consistency.

Power/mation’s role is to bridge innovation and application: connecting global technology leaders with the engineers and manufacturers building the future of American industry. Whether upgrading a single panel or designing a new facility, our team provides the products, expertise, and support to move from concept to production confidently.

Contact us today to discuss your automation goals or visit shop.powermation.com to explore products, kits, and configuration tools designed for smart manufacturing.