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Humanoid robots -- machines powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that physically resemble humans and can emulate human movements and communication -- were not too long ago the sole domain of science fiction. But useful humanoid robots are poised to be produced and available for sale at a significant scale sooner than many people realize. In January, Nvidia (NVDA 2.00%) CEO Jensen Huang said during the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2025 that in less than 10 years from now, he was certain that humanoid robots will surprise everybody with how good they are. Goldman Sachs is also bullish on the growth of this market. The Wall Street firm's "base-case" estimate is for 1.4 million shipments of humanoids by 2035. Its "bull-case" projects unit shipments to reach 1 million by 2031. Below are several ways to invest in the humanoid robot market. None of these companies are pure plays on humanoid robots, so you will also want to consider how their core businesses are performing. Currently. there are no pure-play humanoid robot stocks that trade on a U.S. exchange, to my knowledge. Starting in 2024, Nvidia has been rapidly ramping up its robotics offerings by launching new products for developing humanoid robots. This big push has been enabled by the advent of generative AI, which has greatly expanded the capabilities of AI. Generative AI burst onto the tech scene in late 2022 when OpenAI launch its ChatGPT chatbot. Nvidia has a full-stack offering of software, hardware, and tools for enabling companies to develop humanoid robots. These products enable the end-to-end development of humanoids, from training and simulation to deployment. Buying Nvidia stock is currently the best way to invest in humanoid robots, in my view. Its humanoid robot platform is being used by nearly all the companies known to be developing humanoids. This includes Boston Dynamics (more on this company below), Figure AI, Agility Robotics, 1X Technologies, Apptronik, Fourier Intelligence, Sanctuary AI, Unitree Robotics, and Xpeng Robotics (part of China's XPeng electric vehicle company). Nvidia is making money from the humanoid market, whereas the companies developing humanoids are spending big money. And it should make much more money from this market once humanoid robots are manufactured at large scale. The most widely known humanoid robot under development is probably Tesla (TSLA 4.45%) Optimus. Since the electric vehicle pioneer announced Optimus at its AI Day in 2021, CEO Elon Musk has unveiled two prototypes, periodically shared status updates, and has demonstrated the prototypes in venues intended to generate a lot of media buzz. Last week, on Tesla's third-quarter earnings call, Musk outlined his planned timeline for Optimus as follows. Optimus version 3 prototype targeted for unveiling in early 2026. A production line that has a capacity of 1 million Optimus robots will be built, with the production targeted to start toward the end of next year. An annualized production rate of 1 million will take a while due to the complexity of Optimus and lack of a humanoid supply chain, Musk said. Keep in mind that while Musk has usually delivered on most new products he has announced, he has a history of being overly optimistic on timelines. In 2021, South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Group acquired a controlling 80% stake in leading mobile robot maker Boston Dynamics from Japan's SoftBank, which retained a 20% stake. Boston Dynamics was founded in 1992 as a spin-off from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) lab. In 2013, its first-generation Atlas humanoid robot was unveiled. In 2020, its quadruped Spot became commercially available to industrial customers. And in 2024 it began commercializing its new electric Atlas. Boston Dynamics was owned by Alphabet (which was named Google until 2015) from late 2013 until mid-2017, when it sold it to SoftBank. Atlas has long won big-time accolades, and it could contribute to Hyundai's Boston Dynamics business eventually being a major growth catalyst for the company. But unfortunately, U.S. investors must buy shares directly on the Korea Exchange (KRX). Many U.S. brokerages don't allow investing in stocks listed on a foreign exchange. Moreover, doing so poses additional risks stemming from financial information potentially being limited and currency exchange rates. Hon Hai Precision (known as Foxconn) Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics maker, with a reputation for having highly automated facilities. The Taiwan-based company is probably best known as Apple's major producer of its iPhones, and it also assembles some other Apple products. Its formal name is Hon Hai Precision (HNHPF 1.33%) . Foxconn has been a Nvidia partner since October 2023. That's when the companies announced that Foxconn would integrate Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs) and its other AI-enabling tech into AI data centers powering a wide range of applications, including an autonomous vehicle platform. In April 2025, Nvidia and Foxconn announced that Foxconn would build a smart-manufacturing plant to produce Nvidia AI supercomputers in Houston, Texas. On Tuesday, Foxconn said it will deploy humanoid robots at its Houston plant using Nvidia's Ai-enabling tech. It said the "factory will also be among the first to deploy humanoid robots powered by the Nvidia Isaac GROOT model on its production lines." Apple: Rumored to be developing a humanoid robot I don't have anything substantial to add here, but wanted to share that it's widely rumored that Apple is working on a humanoid robot. However, its first priority in the robotics space is reportedly a table-top robotic arm.
