Dark Factories Market Report 2026

The dark factories market size has grown rapidly in recent years. It will grow from $54.64 billion in 2025 to $60.26 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3%. The growth in the historic period can be attributed to labor cost pressures, demand for operational efficiency, robotics technology maturity, quality consistency requirements, industrial automation investments.

The dark factories market size is expected to see strong growth in the next few years. It will grow to $88.12 billion in 2030 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10%. The growth in the forecast period can be attributed to AI driven manufacturing, shortage of skilled labor, 24 by 7 production demand, smart factory initiatives, cost optimization strategies. Major trends in the forecast period include expansion of fully automated manufacturing plants, rising use of industrial robotics and cobots, integration of IIoT and predictive analytics, growth of lights out production models, increased adoption of autonomous material handling.

The growing adoption of industrial robotics is expected to drive the growth of the dark factories market in the coming years. Industrial robotics involves the use of programmable, automated machines designed to execute manufacturing tasks with high precision and efficiency. This rising adoption is driven by the accuracy and reliability of robots, which ensure consistent quality and minimize human error in production processes. Industrial robotics supports dark factories by enabling fully automated operations, eliminating the need for human intervention, and ensuring precision, consistency, and continuous round-the-clock production. For example, in September 2025, according to the International Federation of Robotics, a Germany-based non-profit research and industry association, the total number of industrial robots in operational use worldwide reached 4,664,000 units in 2024, marking a 9% increase from the previous year, with approximately 542,000 new industrial robots installed globally in 2024. Hence, the increasing adoption of industrial robotics is propelling the growth of the dark factories market.

Leading companies in the dark factories market are developing cutting-edge technologies such as hyper-intelligent manufacturing platforms (HyperIMP) to achieve fully autonomous, continuous production with superior precision, efficiency, and minimal human intervention. A hyper-intelligent manufacturing platform is an advanced AI-driven system that combines automation, machine learning, and real-time data analytics to optimize, control, and autonomously manage manufacturing processes end-to-end. For instance, in August 2024, Xiaomi Corporation, a China-based electronics manufacturer, launched a next-generation smart factory in Changping. This facility operates around the clock without human workers or lighting by leveraging the HyperIMP platform. It integrates AI, IoT, and real-time analytics to enable self-monitoring, autonomous decision-making, and predictive maintenance, along with micron-level dust control and intelligent quality assurance systems to ensure high-precision, defect-free production.

In October 2024, Mpac Group plc, a UK-based packaging automation firm, acquired CSi Palletising for $60 million (€56 million). This acquisition boosts Mpac’s end-of-line automation capabilities, expanding its portfolio of efficient robotic palletizing solutions across multiple industries. CSi Palletising, based in the Netherlands, specializes in industrial automation and robotic palletizing with extensive experience in dark factory environments.

Major companies operating in the dark factories market are Siemens AG, Schneider Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Honeywell International, ABB Ltd, Toshiba Infrastructure Systems & Solutions, Bosch Rexroth, Rockwell Automation, Omron Corporation, Keyence Corporation, FANUC Corporation, Dassault Systèmes, Autodesk, Yaskawa Electric Corporation, KUKA AG, Teradyne, Nachi-Fujikoshi Corp, Staubli Robotics, Beckhoff Automation, Universal Robots, Mobile Industrial Robots (MiR), Denso Wave.

North America was the largest region in the dark factories market in 2025. Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region in the forecast period. The regions covered in the dark factories market report are Asia-Pacific, South East Asia, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, Africa. The countries covered in the dark factories market report are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Taiwan, Russia, South Korea, UK, USA, Canada, Italy, Spain.

The dark factories market consists of revenues earned by entities by providing services such as continuous production, real-time quality control, predictive maintenance, inventory management, and automated packaging. The market value includes the value of related goods sold by the service provider or included within the service offering. The dark factories market also includes sales of machine vision systems, digital twin platforms, remote monitoring systems, industrial sensors, and actuators. Values in this market are ‘factory gate’ values, that is the value of goods sold by the manufacturers or creators of the goods, whether to other entities (including downstream manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors and retailers) or directly to end customers. The value of goods in this market includes related services sold by the creators of the goods.

The market value is defined as the revenues that enterprises gain from the sale of goods and/or services within the specified market and geography through sales, grants, or donations in terms of the currency (in USD unless otherwise specified).

The revenues for a specified geography are consumption values that are revenues generated by organizations in the specified geography within the market, irrespective of where they are produced. It does not include revenues from resales along the supply chain, either further along the supply chain or as part of other products.

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