Staying on top of manufacturing trends is crucial in our industry. Here are four recent, under-the-radar U.S. manufacturing news stories that caught our attention at ACE Controls. each with big implications for automation, supply chains, and the workforce.
Rockwell Automation Rolls Out First U.S.-Built Autonomous Robots
What’s Happening: Rockwell Automation has produced its first autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) on U.S. soil. In late October, the company announced that AMRs are now rolling off the line at Rockwell’s Milwaukee headquarters. These OTTO 600 and OTTO 1200 robots, technology acquired via Rockwell’s 2023 purchase of Clearpath Robotics, are being assembled in a new 25,000 sq. ft. facility. Rockwell says this milestone makes it the largest industrial automation company building AMRs in the United States. The robots are designed to haul heavy materials around factory floors, using sensors and laser scanners to navigate safely. By reducing reliance on manual forklifts, Rockwell’s AMRs aim to boost safety, speed up material handling, and cut down on product damage for manufacturers.
NVIDIA & Samsung Team Up on AI-Powered Chip Manufacturing
What’s Happening: Tech giants NVIDIA and Samsung announced a new partnership to create an “AI Factory” for semiconductor manufacturing. Samsung is launching an AI-driven “megafactory” project that will embed AI across its chip production process in collaboration with NVIDIA. The initiative will employ 50,000 NVIDIA GPUs to crunch massive amounts of manufacturing data, enabling real-time analytics, predictive modeling, and optimization at every step from chip design to fabrication. In practical terms, Samsung is using NVIDIA’s advanced computing platforms and software (like CUDA and Omniverse) to supercharge tasks like lithography and simulation, achieving up to a 20-fold speed boost in critical chipmaking computations through GPU acceleration. They’re even building digital twin models of semiconductor fabs to allow AI to optimize operations and maintenance virtually before applying changes in real plants.
New Section 232 Tariffs Target Trucks & Buses
What’s Happening: The White House has imposed new import tariffs on medium and heavy-duty trucks, parts, and buses under Section 232 of U.S. trade law (a national security provision). Announced in mid-October and effective November 1, 2025, the tariffs add a 25% duty on imported heavy trucks and their key components, and 10% on imported buses. To ease the transition, certain provisions allow North American manufacturers (e.g. Canadian or Mexican producers under USMCA) to pay tariffs only on the non-U.S. portion of a vehicle’s value. Still, this is a sweeping trade action: a large share of U.S. heavy trucks (over 30%) currently come from Mexico, whereas most buses are already U.S.-made.
Senate Urged to Modernize Manufacturing Apprenticeships
What’s Happening: Manufacturing leaders recently took their workforce concerns to Capitol Hill. In early November, the U.S. Senate’s HELP Committee (Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions) held a hearing titled “Registered Apprenticeship: Scaling the Workforce for the Future.” Gardner Carrick of the Manufacturing Institute testified that the federal Registered Apprenticeship program needs major updates to better support manufacturing. He highlighted the sector’s ongoing skilled labor shortage: an estimated 3.8 million manufacturing jobs could go unfilled by 2033 if current trends hold. Carrick argued that while apprenticeships can be a powerful pipeline for talent, today’s federal program is too rigid and bureaucratic. For example, many companies opt for their own training initiatives (like the industry-led FAME program) rather than the official system. Only about 15% of participants in FAME are registered apprentices, indicating a disconnect. The Senate was urged to modernize and streamline apprenticeships, making them more employer-driven, skill-focused, and flexible, that way manufacturers can more easily grow the next generation of skilled tradespeople.