Demand for new data centers, power plants and highways is fueling a construction boom, even as the industry wrestles with declining productivity and a shortage of skilled machine operators. Physical AI, which lets machines perceive their surroundings and act on them, is emerging as one answer.
Caterpillar announced a collaboration with robotics company FieldAI on Sept. 5, 2026, aimed at bringing physical AI and autonomous systems to construction sites and industrial environments The companies plan to combine Caterpillar’s operational data and engineering with FieldAI’s robot foundation models, along with NVIDIA computing and digital twin tools
Caterpillar stock has delivered a very strong 332.0% total return over the past 5 years, yet current checks suggest the shares now look closer to fairly valued than clearly cheap, with only a limited margin between the market price and one widely used intrinsic value estimate. At the same time, traditional earnings multiples still screen…
