Investors bet humanoid robots will transform industry and homes over the next decade - CNBC
Chloe Taylor@ChloeTaylor141 WATCH LIVE Key Points Humanoid robots are expected to grow to a $200 billion market in less than a decade, according to Barclays. Wedbush's Dan Ives told CNBC he sees the market being worth trillions of dollars in the next 10 years.
Key takeaways
Humanoid robots are gaining momentum across multiple fronts as of June 2026. Investors are betting heavily on the sector, with Barclays forecasting a $200 billion market by 2035 and Wedbush’s Dan Ives suggesting it could eventually be worth trillions, while SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son has called physical AI the next trillion‑dollar opportunity. Companies such as China’s Unitree Robotics are showcasing humanoids in public venues, and Chinese manufacturers now claim the capacity to build thousands of units annually, though analysts warn demand may lag supply. In the United States, corporate giants are accelerating development: OpenAI is expanding its robotics lab to create a humanoid platform, Meta has acquired Assured Robot Intelligence to boost its AI models for humanoids, and Boston Dynamics—now owned by Hyundai—is planning to field tens of thousands of Atlas robots in factories by 2028. Tesla’s Optimus remains a high‑profile but opaque project, with CEO Elon Musk hinting that limited consumer sales could start by the end of 2027. Start‑ups are also moving toward commercial rollout; 1X Technologies began full‑scale production of its NEO humanoid in California, and Humanoid Ltd. announced a partnership with Bosch and Schaeffler to scale manufacturing. Meanwhile, industry analysts note that practical deployments are emerging in logistics, baggage handling, delivery and care, with early trials at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Amazon’s last‑mile delivery prototypes. These developments collectively illustrate a rapid shift from laboratory prototypes to large‑scale production and market‑focused applications for humanoid robots.
Chloe Taylor@ChloeTaylor141
WATCH LIVE
Key Points
Humanoid robots are expected to grow to a $200 billion market in less than a decade, according to Barclays. Wedbush's Dan Ives told CNBC he sees the market being worth trillions of dollars in the next 10 years. China is currently far outpacing the U.S. in the development of the technology, market watchers said.
Unitree Robotics humanoids dance on May 31, 2026, in Shanghai, for the opening of Asia's first embodied intelligence experience store.
Jade Gao | Afp | Getty Images
Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son told CNBC this week that physical AI and robotics were where he saw the next trillion-dollar company emerging from. Humanoid robots, designed to mimic human movement and capabilities, have been hitting headlines in recent years, from their use as baggage handlers at Japanese airports to Tesla's big bet on its Optimus humanoid.
Market watchers have predicted that the machines will change the world over the next decade and forecast that the industry will grow 100-fold, as AI's physical capabilities evolve. One investor said consumer stocks were the path to unlocking value from it.
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Elon Musk is pivoting Tesla to AI and robots. Wall Street analysts have their doubts Zornitza Todorova, head of thematic FICC research at Barclays and a co-author of the bank's "AI Gets Physical" report, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday that "it's the decade of the robot."
"Humanoid robotics is really on an upward trajectory," she said. "The size of the market today is really small, it's 2 to 3 billion [dollars], but we see it going up to $200 billion in 2035."
According to Todorova's report, published earlier this month, humanoids "are automation 3.0." The machines are designed to fill structural labor gaps, the report said, with ageing populations, urbanization and changing job preferences leaving "dirty, dull and dangerous" roles well suited to robots.
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