2026 feels like a year where a lot of “future of manufacturing” ideas stop being slides and start becoming factories, workflows, and supply chains. To kick the year off, I thought I’d list a few of the developments coming over the next 12 months that have caught my attention…
🔹 Manufacturing moves off-planet
UK start-up Space Forge have launched a 1,000°C furnace into orbit to test semiconductor manufacturing in microgravity. Why? It enables the production of chips that are orders of magnitude purer than those made on Earth. In theory, atoms arrange themselves into a far more regular structure in a weightless environment, allowing for far greater purity. Whether this purity can provide enough value to overcome the cost-effectiveness of terrestrial manufacturing remains to be seen, but if it works, it fundamentally reframes how we think about high-value manufacturing locations.
🔹 Humanoid robots leave the demo stage
Foxconn is piloting humanoid robots in its Houston factory to help build AI servers, using NVIDIA’s “physical AI” stack. While using AI to build more AI may excite some dread from Sci-Fi writers, the reality is far more nuanced from a manufacturing perspective, and it will be interesting to watch how the “smart factory” performs. Combined with Tesla’s continued push on Optimus, 2026 could be the year humanoid robots start doing useful, repetitive factory work rather than just impressing on stage.
🔹 Tool-less, flexible metal forming
Machina Labs is combining robotics, AI, and flexible tooling to form metal parts without traditional dies. If this scales, it’s a big deal for low-volume, high-complexity manufacturing where tooling costs dominate. Think of these robotic cells as behaving like an old-fashioned craftsman. Able to shift between multiple tasks with out the need for expensive updates to hardware. It’s an idea we’ve spoken about before on the Poka-post, and Machina Labs are taking massive strides in turning it into a reality.
Overall theme for 2026: less “automation as a project” - more “automation as the operating system".