Schaeffler, the German bearings and automotive components maker, announced on November 3 that it will cut 3,460 jobs across Europe, with 2,660 of those positions disappearing in Germany. Four German sites and one in Belgium will close, including facilities in Dortmund, Morbach, Berlin and Schwalbach. The company expects to book roughly €480 million in one-time restructuring costs, mostly in 2026, in exchange for about €300 million in annual savings starting in 2030.
Inside the same announcement sits a number that explains where Schaeffler expects future revenue to come from: a €400 million order backlog in humanoid robotics components, built up over the first nine months of the year. Chief Operating Officer Schröder named humanoid robotics and defense as the company's two priority growth areas going forward, while declining to specify how many jobs either business might eventually create.
A Bearings Supplier Betting on Robot Joints
Schaeffler built its business on bearings, clutches and chassis components for combustion and electric vehicles. That core market is shrinking as European automakers cut production and shift manufacturing to lower-cost regions. CEO Rosenfeld made the underlying economics explicit, noting that personnel costs in Germany run roughly 2.5 times higher than in other European countries where Schaeffler competes for the same work.
Humanoid robots require many of the same precision components Schaeffler has sold to the auto industry for decades: harmonic drives, actuators and bearings engineered for repetitive, high-cycle motion. A €400 million backlog is still small next to the company's €17.48 billion in nine-month revenue, but it represents a category of customer that barely existed for Schaeffler two years ago.
Why This Matters Beyond One Company
Schaeffler's move mirrors a pattern now visible across German industrial suppliers: traditional automotive component makers reallocating R&D and production capacity toward humanoid robot actuators as EV demand growth slows. Hyundai Mobis has taken a similar path, building actuator prototypes for Boston Dynamics' Atlas. ZF and Bosch have both disclosed humanoid-adjacent component programs in 2026 earnings calls.
The scale mismatch is the story here. Schaeffler's restructuring bill of €480 million is larger than its entire disclosed humanoid order book, underscoring how early this transition still is for legacy suppliers. Nine-month EBIT rose 6.5% to €794 million, so the company is not in financial distress — it is reallocating ahead of demand it expects to materialize, not demand that already offsets the cuts. The powertrain and chassis division being trimmed still generated €6.3 billion in revenue over nine months, roughly fifteen times the humanoid backlog.
What happens next will depend on whether humanoid robot makers like Figure, Apptronik and Chinese manufacturers scale production fast enough to convert that backlog into recurring revenue before 2030, when Schaeffler's savings target comes due. For now, the €400 million figure functions more as a signal to investors than a financial cushion for displaced workers.