Humanoid: Robots clocking in
The march of the humanoid robots is upon us, with a market that sits at $2bn a year in sales predicted to rise to as much as $200bn by 2035.
London-based Humanoid has become Europe’s first robotics unicorn, raising funds at a valuation of about $1.4bn as it has designed what it describes as industrial-grade humanoid labour, ready to deploy. It is using Bosch as a contract manufacturer and Schaeffler Group to supply the actuators that act as the robot’s muscles.
The aim, ambitious as it sounds, is to ramp up production to 150,000 units a year by 2030, and the company is predicting revenues in the multiple billions of dollars.
Clearly there is considerable appeal in having a labour force that can carry out the most tedious tasks without a word of complaint and never calls in sick, sneaks off for a fag break or fails to return to the office after a two-bottle lunch; robots certainly never go on strike for a pay increase, because the beauty of the deal is that you don’t need to pay them at all.
China is way ahead of the rest of the world in humanoid robotics, accounting for about 85% of the units deployed in 2025, with its two largest manufacturers, AgiBot and Unitree, making up about 70% of domestic deployments.
China’s industrial policy framework heavily supports advances in robotics, and it has developed a complete supply chain ecosystem to boost the sector.
Meanwhile, in the US the ever-reticent Elon Musk predicts that his Optimus humanoids will be the biggest product ever created.
Tesla: EVs on the skids
Musk had better hope that Tesla’s pivot towards autonomous taxis and AI-powered humanoid robots starts to pay off soon, because the core electric vehicle (EV) business is not looking too clever.
The company surprised the market with adjusted net income for the second quarter down 17% on the previous year, and its share price dropped 11% on the day, taking its decline this year to 26%. Deliveries in the quarter were a record 480,126 vehicles, which demonstrates the depth of the discounts the company had to offer to lure back customers.
When Tesla launched the Cybertruck in 2023, Musk claimed the company would sell 250,000 of these futuristic pickups a year, but back in the real world sales for the first half of 2026 were about 7,000. Tesla hasn’t launched a new passenger car since 2020, while its competitors in China are launching increasingly cheaper and better models by the dozen.
Musk’s love-in with President Donald Trump and his time at the “department of government efficiency” did nothing to help his reputation with potential EV buyers, who tend to be on the liberal side as opposed to the gas-guzzling V8 fans in the MAGA hats.
The EV sector in the US has taken a dive under the Trump presidency, with sales down about 24% this year after Congress cancelled the EV tax credits and the administration rolled back regulations on tailpipe emissions.
All the money that Musk is piling into AI and SpaceX has to come from somewhere, so maybe a bit more attention to the core EV business would make sense.