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I agree that you can get to some big cost figures if you're talking about a full work cell with multiple robots, conveyors, end effectors, fancy sensors, high-tech safety systems, and staff costs.

But if you're just buying the arm itself? There are quality robot arms, like the €38,928 UR10e [1], that are within reach of SMEs. No multi-million-dollar budget required.

[1] https://shop.wiredworkers.io/en_GB/shop/universal-robots-ur1...

It seems such costs would become prohibitive quite quickly? Stuff with moving parts breaks, and I'd expect ongoing maintenance costs to be proportional to the unit cost. Pair in the fact that most factories run on thin margins but massive volume, and it would seem cost is very much an issue.

I think it's more about how much of that 40m$ is nvidia and how many units can you deploy ?