CNBC Television · Oct 7, 2026
With Suresh Krishna, President and CEO of Protolabs
Protolabs' robotics business grew 100% in the first half of this year, Suresh Krishna said, and its data center business doubled over the past year.
Most manufacturers depend on skilled machinists to run their equipment. Krishna said Protolabs does not use them at all, because software runs its machines, and he said that is the only way the US can bring manufacturing home.
"So reindustrialization is absolutely happening. We are getting more work back to the US, but we don't have the machinists who left 30 years ago." — Suresh Krishna
Suresh Krishna, President and CEO of Protolabs, on CNBC, runs the digital manufacturing company whose stock had just hit a fresh 52-week high. It makes custom parts for companies from Lockheed Martin and Boeing to Blue Origin.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 calls that matter.
Key Takeaways
Protolabs uses no machinists: software runs its machines, and it can make parts the same day
The US is bringing manufacturing back without the workers it lost, and Krishna said software is the answer
Robotics orders rose 100% in the first half, and data center orders doubled over the past year
The US needs a supply chain of its own, built on 30,000 small machine shops that need modernizing
Krishna welcomes competition, and said Protolabs' normal lead time for a custom part is three days
1. Software, Not Machinists
The host called the trend manufacturing 2.0, or reindustrialization, and asked what Protolabs is seeing.
"We are seeing a lot of demand from a lot of sectors." — Suresh Krishna
He said the company's focus is speed: helping companies bring new products to market faster.
Protolabs replaced the machinist with software
"We invented what we call digital manufacturing 25 years ago. We don't use machinists in our manufacturing process." — Suresh Krishna
Protolabs does machining with computer-controlled tools, injection molding, 3D printing and sheet metal fabrication, he said, and software does most of the work. A customer sends a design engineer's computer drawing, and the software carries it through to the factory floor and makes the part.
"We do have operators in our factories and we are hiring people, but they are not running the machine. Software is." — Suresh Krishna
