# KUKA

> <p><strong>Ownership:</strong> Owned by Midea Group (China) since 2016 — caveat. Augsburg, Germany since 1898.<br><strong>Employees:</strong> ~15,000<br><strong>Key products:</strong> Heavy industrial robot arms (KR QUANTEC series — payloads up to 800kg); lightweight cobots (LBR iiwa); automotive systems<br><strong>Key markets:</strong> Automotive (BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, VW major customers), aerospace, general industry<br><strong>Known for:</strong> The German robotics institution and backbone of European automotive body-shop automation.</p>

KUKA is the German robotics institution. Its arms are the backbone of European automotive body-shop automation, with BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and VW among its major customers.

The honest sovereignty caveat: KUKA has been owned by China's Midea Group since 2016. That takeover was one of the most controversial European industrial M&A deals of the past decade, and a key reason Germany tightened its FDI screening rules afterwards.

https://www.kuka.com