What is AutoStore? Cube storage robots with a 72% gross margin and a $700M 2026 goal

AutoStore is a Norwegian company, listed in Oslo under the ticker AUTO, that makes cube storage for warehouses: plastic bins are stacked directly on top of each other inside an aluminium grid with no aisles, and battery robots running on rails across the top dig out the bin an order needs and drop it at a picking port. As of the second quarter of 2026 the company counted about 2,000 systems and about 92,500 robots in 68 countries, serving about 1,350 customers, and it expects revenue of around $700 million this year. See the AutoStore company profile for the data we track.

The searches that bring readers here ask what the robots do and how big the company is. The more useful question is why a hardware maker reports a 72% gross margin when the best-known US rival reports 22%, and whether that gap survives the shift to subscriptions and small sites. This explainer answers both, from AutoStore's own filings.

The robots only lift bins, which is why the grid packs so much in

An AutoStore system has three parts. The grid is a frame of aluminium columns in which bins sit in stacks. The robots are wheeled units that drive on top of the grid, lower a gripper into a column and lift the requested bin, moving any bins above it to other stacks first. The ports are workstations at the edge where a person or a robot arm takes the item out. Because no aisle is left for people or forklifts, the same floor holds far more goods than shelving does.

Dividing the installed base gives about 46 robots per system on average (92,500 robots divided by about 2,000 systems, MEKAWIRE calculation). Sites range widely. A UK partner runs more than 700 AutoStore robots in its own warehouses, while the small-business line, Pio, is sold as a subscription. A Norwegian online fashion retailer ordered an 80,000-bin Pio grid in October, which AutoStore said is four times larger than any Pio site running today.

Integrators carry the projects, AutoStore keeps the margin

AutoStore does not build whole warehouses. It sells the grid, robots, ports and software through a network of system integrator partners, who design and install the site. It assembles products in Poland and Thailand, according to its Q4 2025 report. That model explains the margin table below. Symbotic, by contrast, engineers and commissions complete systems, mostly for Walmart, and books the labour and steel that come with them.

The comparison is not perfectly like for like, and the note under the table says where. It still shows the structural point: AutoStore earns component-maker margins on a product that behaves like infrastructure once installed. About 55% of sales have historically gone to existing customers, the company said in its Q2 2026 materials, so each grid tends to grow.

The question the margin raises is how much of the recent growth is repeatable, which the quarterly numbers answer.

Growth returned in 2026 after a weak 2025

Full-year 2025 revenue fell 10.4% to $538.6 million and net income dropped 40.1%, as customers stretched decision cycles and AutoStore paid restructuring costs and wrote down inventory tied to its B1 robot line, according to its Q4 2025 report. It also made its final payment to Ocado Group in the second quarter of 2025 and reports no remaining obligations to its rival. Since then the order book has turned.

AutoStore guided 2026 revenue to around $700 million in its Q2 2026 release. First-half revenue was $357.9 million ($165.8 million plus $192.1 million), so the guidance implies about $342 million in the second half, 4.4% less than the first (MEKAWIRE calculation: 700 minus 357.9, compared with 357.9). The June backlog of $596 million covers that implied second half about 1.7 times. Either management is guiding conservatively, or project timing is lumpier than the order trend suggests. The Nov 5 report will show which.

North America carried the second quarter with $141 million of the $192 million, about 73%, according to the investor presentation. The same release disclosed a global supply agreement with Amazon that sets terms for future procurement but contains no purchase commitments.

Subscriptions, small sites and AI tools are the next layer

Three moves in the past month point the same way. On Oct 2 AutoStore let a UK distribution partner offer its systems as AutoStore as a Service as well as a purchase. On Oct 7 came the large Pio order. On Oct 13 the Fall 2026 product release added FlexBinsPort for mixed bin sizes, Pio Pal robotic picking for smaller businesses, the generative-AI planning tool CubeExplore and the maintenance tool CubeFleet, all on its CubeVerse cloud platform. Subscription contracts signed in 2025 had a total contract value of $34.4 million, a small figure next to $539 million of revenue.

Who owns AutoStore

Funds associated with Thomas H. Lee Partners held 853,231,232 shares, about 25.01% of shares and votes, after treasury shares were cancelled, AutoStore said on Oct 2. That implies roughly 3.41 billion shares outstanding (MEKAWIRE calculation). The board approved a buy-back of up to $75 million in August; by week 42 the company had bought 24,650,851 shares for NOK 390.7 million at a weighted average of NOK 15.85, about 0.7% of the share count.