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Forbes
3 days ago
- Automotive
- Forbes
As Elon Musk Invests In Optimus' Robot, What Value Do Robots Really Bring?
When Elon Musk says Tesla will one day be worth more than Apple and Saudi Aramco combined, he's not talking about electric cars. He's talking about robots. At Tesla's annual shareholder meeting, Musk doubled down on his bet that Optimus — the company's humanoid robot, seen cozying up to Kim Kardashian in a photo shoot last spring — could one day power a $25 trillion market cap. That's right: trillion with a 'T.' It's an audacious vision, built on the belief that general-purpose robots will not just complement human labor but replace vast swaths of it. He has projected hitting sales of a million humanoids a year within five years, priced under $30,000 each, making them a seemingly irresistible source of replacement labor for flesh and blood humans. But before investors recalibrate their spreadsheets, it's worth asking a more fundamental question: What are robots actually good for? BEIJING, CHINA - APRIL 19: Humanoid robot Kuavo falls in the Beijing E-town Half-Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon on April 19, 2025 in Beijing, China. Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot, ran across the finish line while securing the first position during the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon. (Photo by Song Jiaru/VCG via Getty Images) VCG via Getty Images Shortly after Musk's bold prediction, China hosted a widely publicized ' robot marathon ' to showcase the athletic prowess of humanoid robotics. Dozens of bipedal machines shuffled across a track in full view of TV cameras. Most promptly fell over. Others sputtered forward in stiff, jerky motions. A few actually made it to the finish line. The spectacle was unintentionally hilarious, providing a sense of relief to those who worry that technology is advancing faster than regulations can be drawn up. But the videos from the half-marathon proved that, despite tens of billions in investment, even the most basic functions of mobility and dexterity remain elusive for general-purpose robots. This is not to say that they aren't getting better. They are. And quickly. But there's a meaningful difference between a humanoid robot that can wave in a demo video and one that can reliably sew a button, deliver a package in the rain, or assist a senior citizen in the bathroom — all without human intervention or constant and expensive maintenance. For all our Jetsons-fueled fantasies of household helpers, the fact is that the more realistic short-term wins for robots will come in controlled environments. Think: factory lines, warehouses, clean rooms, and hospitals — places where the tasks are repetitive, the variables are limited, and the ROI can be tightly measured. This is why Amazon, a company with no shortage of capital or AI talent, has largely shunned humanoid form factors. Its investments have focused on task-specific robotics like mobile carts, pick-and-place arms, and automated sorters, with a robot fleet one-million strong laboring in its warehouses as of June. In China, companies like DJI and Huawei are leaning into robotics for logistics, surveillance, and industrial automation, areas where the technical hurdles are lower and the use cases immediate. Humanoid robots are still chasing a (literally) moving target: the complexity of the human body. And that's not a race you win with iterative updates. But the challenges facing robotic adoption are not just technical. They're also political, regulatory and cultural. In the United States, the specter of labor displacement looms large. Since President Trump campaigned on the idea of revitalizing domestic industries, many people are waiting for him to deliver on his promise of bringing back jobs to American workers, particularly in manufacturing, mining and other traditionally labor-intensive sectors. The introduction of advanced robotics into these industries complicates that promise. How do you deploy robots in a way that doesn't provoke backlash from unions, policymakers, or a public already anxious about AI's impact on jobs? China, by contrast, has been more aggressive. Facing a shrinking labor force and rising wages, the government has embraced automation as a necessity rather than a luxury. Subsidies for factory automation, pilot programs for robotic caregivers, and fast-tracked approval processes are signs that China views robots not just as a technological opportunity, but as an answer to long-term demographic decline. Humanoid robots manufactured by UBTECH Robotics are already being deployed on a trial basis to assemble Apple phones for Foxconn and electric vehicles for Zeeker and BYD. Leju Robots' humanoids have been used to dole out medicine in eldercare facilities. That said, China's robot revolution has stayed mainly within industrial bounds. Consumer-facing robots remain rare and, as the marathon made clear, still far from mass-market ready. SHANGHAI, CHINA - SEPTEMBER 5, 2024 - Spectators look at Tesla's Core Technology Optimus humanoid robot and a cybertruck off-road station car at the Bund Conference in Shanghai, China, September 5, 2024. (Photo credit should read CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images) CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images This is the geopolitical wildcard. On one hand, the United States has the lead in core technologies: chips ( Nvidia ), software ( OpenAI ), and platform companies like Tesla and Amazon willing to make enormous and speculative bets. On the other hand, China dominates hardware manufacturing, has a more unified industrial policy, and may have fewer legal or ethical constraints on robot deployment. China's National People's Congress announced a 1 trillion RMB ($138 billion US) investment fund in robotic development this spring, and the country has already displaced Germany as the leader in industrial robotics, with 54% of global installations, according to the International Robot Federation . Robots have also become a cultural phenomenon in China, with Unitree's robots dancing alongside human dancers on CCTV to celebrate the Spring Festival , facing off in a kickboxing contest in May, and playing in a soccer tournament in June. While many of these stunts seem goofy, they have caught the attention of Tesla's Elon Musk, who commented on a recent earnings call that 'I'm a little concerned on the leaderboard [of top robotics companies], ranks 2 through 10 will be Chinese companies.' Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea have decades of expertise in robotics research and development and are quietly advancing in areas like caregiving and surgical assistance. Investors are watching closely, and VC capital is flowing into startups like Figure AI, Sanctuary AI, and Agility Robotics, each promising humanoids with varying degrees of autonomy. Over $100 billion in VC funding has flowed into robotics startups since 2018, with about half of that going to U.S.-based companies and a quarter to those based in China. Analysts at Citigroup recently predicted that the global population of robots will explode to 1.3 billion by 2035 and 4 billion by 2050 - making Musk's predictions seem circumspect by comparison. Citigroup expects humanoid robots to be deployed in households, manufacturing and construction sites, and hospitality as replacements or enhancements to human labor. The Promise and the Pitfalls Let's be clear: Musk's $25 trillion vision is not impossible, but it's also not imminent. It assumes not only that Tesla will succeed in building and deploying humanoid robots at scale, but it will dominate a category that is only just coming into existence. The reality is that we're still early. Robots are coming, but the path from prototype to productive form is longer than most headlines suggest. So, what are humanoid robots good for? Right now, they're good at opening wallets, raising valuations, and firing our collective imagination. In the future, they may be good for changing the very nature of labor, economics and even geopolitics. But for investors and policymakers, the challenge is to identify and back the players who will be able to walk as well as they talk.
Al Etihad
29-06-2025
- Sport
- Al Etihad
Robotic football kicks off China's leap in humanoid robot innovation
29 June 2025 10:09 (AGENCIES)A new era of robotic intelligence dawned in Beijing as the first test event for the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games kicked off with a groundbreaking 3v3 AI football at the Beijing Smart E-sports Event Center, the competition was China's first fully autonomous robotic football tournament, and followed the success of the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon, held in Beijing in RoBoLeague football showdown featured a display of advanced robotic technology. Unlike traditional remote-controlled competitions, the humanoid players relied solely on AI-driven strategies, showcasing real-time decision-making and coordinated optimised penalty system minimised interruptions, allowing the 1.2-to-1.5-meter-tall robots to execute fluid movements and well-orchestrated attacks mimicking human football elite teams emerged from the preliminaries to compete in the finals. The Blaze Team from Beijing Information Science and Technology University impressed with the robots' agile evasion maneuvers. Tsinghua University's Power Intelligent Team demonstrated seamless communication protocols that enabled precise passes. The Mountain-Sea Team from China Agricultural University stood out for its energy-efficient design, maintaining peak performance throughout the intense robotic football event builds on the momentum of April's historic half-marathon, in which 20 humanoid robot teams completed a 21.0975-kilometer course in Beijing's Daxing District. The Sky Project Ultra robot, also known as Tiangong Ultra, crossed the finish line to win the Humanoid Robot Half-Marathon. China's humanoid robot sector has evolved rapidly from theoretical research to industrial implementation. Robots are now widely used in various Chinese industries, with robots evolving from task-specific machines to general-purpose assistants tailored for diverse environments, from construction sites to elderly care. Collaborative robots (cobots) are also widely used in automotive plants, working alongside human personnel.
Qatar Tribune
18-05-2025
- Business
- Qatar Tribune
China's humanoid robots will not replace humans
Agencies China's humanoid robots will not replace human workers and cause mass unemployment, according to a Chinese official who oversees a tech hub in Beijing, amid a rapid expansion of the sector and state funding for it. Liang Liang, a deputy director at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, which hosts one of China's largest tech hubs, said in an interview on Friday with foreign media that he does not believe that humanoid robots will replace their human creators, but will boost productivity and operate in hazardous environments. 'We don't believe robots will make people unemployed, but rather they'll boost efficiency or take on tasks humans are unwilling to do - like exploring the vast universe or the ocean depths where people can't go. Machines can assist us in that exploration,' Liang said. 'When it's nighttime and humans need rest, machines could keep working, giving us better, cheaper, and more user-friendly products. So we see this as the direction for our future development,' he added. Liang explained that the world's first robot half-marathon held last month in Beijing was deliberately set up in a way that would highlight his and other officials' hopes that these humanoids will support and assist humans, rather than replace them. The half-marathon featured two tracks separated by a railing, with humans competing against each other on one side while on the other side 20 teams each operated a robot, varying wildly in size and ability. 'You see, in the marathon, humans have their track where they push their physical limits, and the machines have their own track where they jointly challenge their limits - but they aren't trying to take over the human course to sprint to the finish line. Liang spoke to reporters at the headquarters of state-backed X-Humanoid, also known as the Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Centre, whose robot Tiangong Ultra won the inaugural robot half-marathon. Besides the sports-focused Ultra model, which can reach a top speed of 12 kphthe center also displayed other protypes that showed it was working on robots that can complete mundane tasks in the face of obstructions and changing environments.
Kuwait Times
18-05-2025
- Business
- Kuwait Times
China's humanoid robots will not replace humans
BEIJING: China's humanoid robots will not replace human workers and cause mass unemployment, according to a Chinese official who oversees a tech hub in Beijing, amid a rapid expansion of the sector and state funding for it. Liang Liang, a deputy director at the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, which hosts one of China's largest tech hubs, said in an interview on Friday with foreign media that he does not believe that humanoid robots will replace their human creators, but will boost productivity and operate in hazardous environments. 'We don't believe robots will make people unemployed, but rather they'll boost efficiency or take on tasks humans are unwilling to do - like exploring the vast universe or the ocean depths where people can't go. Machines can assist us in that exploration,' Liang said. 'When it's nighttime and humans need rest, machines could keep working, giving us better, cheaper, and more user-friendly products. So we see this as the direction for our future development,' he added. Liang explained that the world's first robot half-marathon held last month in Beijing was deliberately set up in a way that would highlight his and other officials' hopes that these humanoids will support and assist humans, rather than replace them. The half-marathon featured two tracks separated by a railing, with humans competing against each other on one side while on the other side 20 teams each operated a robot, varying wildly in size and ability. 'You see, in the marathon, humans have their track where they push their physical limits, and the machines have their own track where they jointly challenge their limits - but they aren't trying to take over the human course to sprint to the finish line. The future will be like this too,' Liang said. Liang spoke to reporters at the headquarters of state-backed X-Humanoid, also known as the Beijing Humanoid Robotics Innovation Centre, whose robot Tiangong Ultra won the inaugural robot half-marathon. Besides the sports-focused Ultra model, which can reach a top speed of 12 kph (7.56 mph), the center also displayed other protypes that showed it was working on robots that can complete mundane tasks in the face of obstructions and changing environments. — Reuters In one demonstration, an employee repeatedly moved the position of a piece of litter or snatched it from the robot's hand, which would then relocate the object and carry out the task until it was completed, a self-corrective ability the centre says will be key in turning the humanoids into productive workers. — Reuters
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
China's humanoid robots designed to assist, not replace, human workers, says official
A Beijing official has revealed that China is rapidly developing humanoid robots that are intended to assist human workers and not replace them. As reported by Reuters, Liang Liang, deputy director of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, emphasised that these robots will boost productivity and take on hazardous tasks. Liang Liang clarified that humanoid robots will be used in areas such as deep-sea and space exploration, where humans cannot operate. "We don't believe robots will make people unemployed, but rather they'll boost efficiency or take on tasks humans are unwilling to do - like exploring the vast universe or the ocean depths where people can't go. Machines can assist us in that exploration," Liang told Reuters. The human robot collaboration To illustrate this vision, Beijing recently hosted the world's first robot half-marathon , where humanoid robots competed separately from human runners. The event was designed to showcase how robots can complement human efforts rather than replace them. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like POROSI TANI +355677168901 | Koha nuk ka qenë kurrë kaq elegante. Reklame nga | Enzo Attini Undo The competition featured Tiangong Ultra, a humanoid robot developed by X-Humanoid, a state-backed robotics innovation center. The robot demonstrated advanced mobility, reaching speeds of 12 km/h, reinforcing China's commitment to developing adaptive and efficient robotic systems. Beyond sports, China's humanoid robots are being developed to handle repetitive and physically demanding tasks. Demonstrations at the robotics center showed robots successfully adapting to changing environments and human interference, a key capability for future workplace integration. As per Reuters report, Liang reiterated that China's approach to robotics is not about replacing human labor but about creating a future where machines and humans work together. As China continues to invest heavily in AI and robotics, the government's stance on human-robot collaboration will be crucial in shaping public perception and industry adoption.
