Senior Compliance Engineer

Symbotic acquires autonomous forklift provider Fox Robotics. Symbotic has acquired autonomous forklift developer Fox Robotics to broaden its logistics robotics offerings. Financial details about the acquisition were not disclosed. Symbotic announced the deal during its first-quarter 2026 earnings call. Symbotic founder and CEO Rick Cohen said the Fox Robotics acquisition gives the company access to a broader market in autonomous material handling, as well as the ability to introduce systems beyond existing warehouse automation. Founded in 2017, Fox Robotics said it "currently has 100+ FoxBot autonomous forklifts installed at 54 customer sites across the U.S. and Canada." The Austin, Texas-based company didn't specify how many customers it has. However, during the Symbotic earnings call, Cohen said Fox Robotics has 25 customers, and "mostly what they're doing is pilots." Most of Fox Robotics' customers do not overlap with Symbotic's base. But it appears the two companies share one large customer: Walmart. Fox Robotics had tests with Walmart. Walmart announced in 2024 that, after a 16-month pilot, it had rolled out 19 Fox Robotics autonomous forklifts across four high-tech distribution centers. "The interesting thing with Fox is our large customer has thousands of fork trucks," said Cohen. "But there are lots of other customers. The CPG [consumer packaged goods] manufacturers, their facilities, where they actually don't do as much manual selection, but they still move pallets from the warehouse to the trucks. They unload goods to their warehouses." Walmart has long been Symbotic's largest customer. Some estimates have Walmart accounting for nearly 90% of Symbotic's revenue as of early 2026. Symbotic in 2025 acquired Walmart Advanced Systems & Robotics, which originally was Alert Innovation. Walmart acquired Alert Innovation in 2022 to develop in-store automation for e-grocery fulfillment, but Walmart sold this business to Symbotic in January 2025 to focus on broader applications. Acquisitions to broaden customer base. "So what I'm excited about is that we're looking for more opportunities to interact with customers, and acquisitions is a nice way to do it to introduce them," noted Cohen. "As we talk to the supply chain people and we make these robots more successful, they build credibility and trust in Symbotic as a solution provider. Some of [Fox Robotics'] biggest customers are not Symbotic customers. Now, we hope they will be in the future." "Some M&A could be a way of acquiring customers and getting much more interaction with the customers," he added. "In the Fox acquisition, we can sell guided fork trucks to a lot more people than we can sell a Symbotic system to. I mean, we could sell two guided fork trucks to Joe's Pizza Warehouse." "But there's people like DHL and other people that are very interested in space that they're running tests on, a lot of the big CPG companies," Cohen explained. "So, we looked at Fox and said, 't'This is a very, very large potential customer base. Smaller sales per transaction but beginning to show customers how they can think about reorienting their warehouses.'" Symbotic reports strong results. Symbotic reported first-quarter revenue of $630 million, up 29% year over year, and net income of $13 million, compared with a net loss of $17 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. The company said adjusted EBITDA reached $67 million, up from $18 million in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.8 billion at the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2026, reflecting a $574 million increase from the prior quarter, which includes $424 million of net proceeds from a follow-on offering. "We are off to a strong start this fiscal year," said Cohen. "Our operational execution and product innovation are yielding tangible economic benefits for both our customers and us."

Symbotic has acquired autonomous forklift developer Fox Robotics, expanding its logistics robotics portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal was announced during Symbotic's Q1 2026 earnings call. Founded in 2017 in Austin, Texas, Fox Robotics has deployed over 100 autonomous forklifts across 54 sites in the US and Canada. CEO Rick Cohen said Fox Robotics serves 25 customers, including Walmart, Symbotic's largest customer. Cohen highlighted the acquisition opens access to a broader market, including CPG manufacturers and logistics providers like DHL. Symbotic reported Q1 revenue of $630 million, up 29% year-over-year, with net income of $13 million compared to a $17 million loss previously. Cash reserves totalled $1.8 billion. Walmart has historically accounted for nearly 90% of Symbotic's revenue.