America's Warehouse Robot Costs $200,000 — China's Does the Same Job for $25,000. Here's Why

Why does a warehouse robot cost $200,000 in the United States and $25,000 in China — for what's essentially the same job? This video traces the real story: from Kiva Systems, the Massachusetts company that invented the modern warehouse robot, to Amazon's $775 million acquisition of it in 2012, to Geek+, the Beijing company founded in a university basement that now dominates the category Kiva left behind. It's not a cheap-labor story — it's a story about component supply chains, market structure, and what happens when the only company making a technology gets bought instead of allowed to compete. #WarehouseRobots #SupplyChain #Manufacturing #projectscale