Midea's Plan for Beer-Pouring Robots, People-Less Factories
- Company sees market gain in consumer and industrial robots
- Acquired Kuka robotics maker to leverage Midea’s scale
China's Midea Is Betting Big on Automation
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China’s Midea Group Co. has a vision to put consumer robots in homes globally -- and it’s doubling down in Silicon Valley to get there.
The world’s biggest consumer appliance maker sees its 3.7 billion-euro ($4.4 billion) purchase of German robot maker Kuka AG as the linchpin to its expansion plans, from making robots capable of pouring beer to installing droids in factories without a single worker. Increasing the number of research engineers in the U.S. and adding a Kuka factory in China is just the start, Midea Vice President Hu Ziqiang said in an interview.