Amazon's $100 Million Greenwood Robotics Plant Pays Near $100,000 Average Salary

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Amazon announced a $100 million, 585,000-square-foot advanced manufacturing plant at 1175 Collins Road in Greenwood on September 24, creating 300 jobs in CNC operation, welding, powder coating, and controls engineering at an average salary near $100,000. The move puts Amazon directly into manufacturing the robots it already buys from outside vendors. Boston Dynamics has committed all 2026 Atlas production to Hyundai and Google DeepMind, and Figure AI is running 10-hour shifts dedicated to BMW, leaving Amazon unable to source externally at the pace its robotic arm fleet is expanding. The Greenwood site sits across the street from an existing Amazon fulfillment center, built for a closed loop between building robots and deploying them. The average salary runs 40 to 80 percent above the $55,000 to $70,000 regional pay for CNC operators and welders, a gap wide enough to pull skilled trades off other I-65 corridor shop floors well before the plant opens in 2028.

For your morning huddle

If Amazon's wage floor at Greenwood pulls CNC operators and welders away from our shop floor, what's our retention and pay-scale response before 2028 hiring ramps up?

Amazon's average salary runs 40 to 80 percent above the $55,000 to $70,000 regional pay for CNC operators and welders, a gap wide enough to pull trades talent off any I-65 corridor shop floor. The hiring ramp is still two years out, which is the window to review your own wage scale.

Briefing note

Impact: This is Amazon formally moving from robotics end-user to at-scale manufacturer, competing with the same third-party vendors it also buys from: Boston Dynamics has committed all 2026 Atlas production to Hyundai and Google DeepMind, and Figure AI is running 10-hour shifts dedicated to BMW, leaving Amazon unable to source externally at the pace its doubling robotic-arm fleet demands. The Greenwood site sits directly across the street from an existing Amazon fulfillment center, making this a closed-loop build-test-deploy operation rather than a standalone cost play, and its near-$100,000 average salary is roughly 40-80% above the $55,000-$70,000 regional pay for CNC operators and welders, a gap that could pull skilled trades away from other I-65 corridor manufacturers.
Watch: Equipment-installation milestones ahead of the 2028 launch target, and any IEDC disclosure quantifying the EDGE/HBI incentive package Amazon is drawing on, including the inherited tax abatement from the site's previous developer.

Sources

Amazon plans $100M Indiana manufacturing hub, 300 jobs · therobotreport.com

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Amazon's $100 Million Greenwood Robotics Plant Pays Near $100,000 Average Salary

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