Humanoid robots are machines powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that physically resemble humans and can emulate human movements and communication. While many of us can still only dream of having a humanoid maid like Rosie from the futuristic Jetsons cartoon, useful humanoid robots will be here sooner than many people realize.
This is the opinion of Nvidia (NVDA 3.10%) CEO Jensen Huang, who has led the company he co-founded in 1993 to become the world's second-largest company by market cap (behind Apple, but not by much).
Earlier this month, Huang gave the opening keynote speech to kick off Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2025 and co-hosted a CES financial analyst conference. One of the most exciting things for Nvidia stock investors that he said was this remark: "Less than 10 years from now I am certain humanoid robots will surprise everybody [with] how good they are.”
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The humanoid robot market is projected to grow extremely rapidly
The 2024 global humanoid robot market was worth about $1 billion to $2.5 billion in 2024, according to most estimates. Currently, the market consists largely of research and development of hardware and software for humanoid robots. Some companies are in the early stages of using humanoids internally, but no company has yet to offer a humanoid robot -- or "general-purpose robot" -- for sale to the public, to my knowledge, at least in the United States.
Market growth projections from reputable sources are nearly universally very rosy and have recently significantly increased due to the rapid advances of AI, namely the advent of generative AI. Generative AI, which greatly increases the use cases for AI, burst onto the tech scene in late 2022 with OpenAI's launch of its ChatGPT chatbot.
"The total addressable market for humanoid robots is projected to reach $38 billion by 2035, up more than sixfold from a previous projection of $6 billion," Goldman Sachs wrote in an early 2024 report. Its previous projection was from just one year earlier! This is Goldman's "base case" model which estimates unit shipments of 1.4 million by 2035. Along with the acceleration of progress in AI, the firm also cited investment in the sector growing faster than it had anticipated as a factor for its huge upward revision.
The firm's "bull case" projects humanoid robot shipments to hit 1 million units by 2031, four years ahead of its previous expectation of 2035. And it has a "blue sky" scenario that is even rosier.
Keep in mind the Goldman report I'm citing is from early 2024. It seems likely that the firm will be releasing another report soon and its market size projection for the base case seems poised to be revised upward from the $38 billion by 2035.
Indeed, a hot-off-the-presses Jan. 17 report from Technavio, a global technology research and advisory company, forecasts the global humanoid robot market will reach $59.2 billion by 2029, equating to a blistering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 70% from 2024.
Morgan Stanley is also very bullish on the growth prospects for humanoid robots. The investment banking firm forecasts that there will be 40,000 humanoids working alongside humans in the U.S. by 2030, and that number will soar to 8 million by 2040 and 63 million by 2025.
How is Nvidia involved in humanoid robots?
Nvidia is the leader in providing chips -- primarily graphics processing units (GPUs) -- and related technology to enable AI capabilities. The company has been involved in robotics for years, as its technology has been used to train robots such as drones and warehouse robots and also used as the AI-powered "brains" inside these machines.
Starting in 2024, Nvidia has greatly ramped up its robotics offerings by pushing into the humanoid robotic space. This was only possible due to the advent of generative AI.
In March 2024, Nvidia introduced its Project GR00T (Generalist Robot 00 Technology) AI foundation model for humanoid robots. Robots powered by GR00T "will be designed to understand natural language and emulate movements by observing human actions," the company said in the press release. As part of this initiative, it also unveiled a new computer, Jetson Thor, for humanoid robots, and major upgrades to its Isaac robotics platform, including generative AI foundation models and tools for simulation.
At that same time, Nvidia announced that it is "building a comprehensive AI platform for leading humanoid robot companies such as 1X Technologies, Agility Robotics, Apptronik, Boston Dynamics, Figure AI, Fourier Intelligence, Sanctuary AI, Unitree Robotics, and Xpeng Robotics [part of China's XPeng electric vehicle company], among others."
At CES 2025, Huang announced additional initiatives for the development of AI-powered humanoid robots. Essentially, the company has created a full-stack offering of software, hardware, and tools for enabling companies to develop humanoid robots. This includes training, simulation, and deployment.
All or nearly all the big players in the humanoid robotics space are using Nvidia's technology to develop their robots. In my view, that makes Nvidia stock the best way, at least currently, for folks to invest in the humanoid robot market, which is poised to be massive in size.
