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Why Automation is Key to Enabling U.S. Reindustrialization | Tema ETFs

Written by Chris Semenuk | Jan 16, 2026 7:13:34 PM

Supply chain disruption and political will are reinvigorating US manufacturing. Yet for the nearly $3 trillion manufacturing investments1 announced in 2025 to succeed, they will need one thing - automation.  

Automation overcomes key challenges of building manufacturing on US soil.

  • Today it is cheaper to manufacture in China, yet the cost advantage shrinks materially if factories can automate. Automation brings lower costs, better productivity, and optimization for globally restructuring businesses.

China’s Cost Advantage Shrinks with Automation  

Source: UBS, US Census Bureau, China Natl Bureau Statistics as of Jan 2024.

  • The Manufacturing Institute estimates that the US today faces a shortfall of 1.9 million skilled manufacturing workers by 20332. This challenge can only be met with automation, and the runway is long. McKinsey estimates that only 6% of manufacturing facilities in the US are automated at scale3.  
  • Competing global manufacturing isn’t standing still – China installed ten times as many robots in their production sites as the US in 20254. Other Asian countries, like Korea and Japan, also surpass the US in robot density5 in manufacturing. 

Emerson estimates that the global automation market across software, systems, and devices is $175bn6. Automation is a continuous journey, as this slide from Rockwell, a leading US automation company, shows. Breakthroughs in AI are facilitating an acceleration towards fully autonomous factories.  

Moving from Industrial Automation to Full Autonomy 

Source: Rockwell Investor Day Deck, November 2025 

“Now when I talk about the new global equilibrium, what does that really mean for many of our clients and also for Schneider? It means that some of the economies are decoupling. Many countries are reshoring manufacturing. We will see manufacturing and production in countries where the capabilities are not there. So it means more automation. It means more digitization where we can help, and it's important to also have a good own supply chain to be able to demonstrate to our clients what can be done to create more efficiency, more sustainability, more productivity."

Peter Herweck, CEO of Schneider Electric. Q3 Investor Call 

Automation is a key theme in the Tema American Reshoring (RSHO) ETF. Some of the top holdings are businesses with direct exposure:

  • Rockwell Automation – a leader in industrial automation and digital transformation solutions in the US.  
  • Cognex – a pioneer in AI-powered machine vision across all manufacturing.  
  • Applied Industrial Technologies – one of the largest US distributors of factory automation, pneumatics and fluid power equipment.
  • Emerson Electric – a conglomerate with a focus on industrial and process automation including software tools.  

For a list of holdings of the fund, visit the fund page. Holdings are subject to change.

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