Robots Everywhere: Goldman Sachs Now Sees 6.5 Million Humanoid Robots by 2035
On the test-and-automation layer, Teradyne reported Q2 2026 revenue of $1.329B, up 103.9% year over year, with Robotics revenue of $100 million, up 33% year over year. CEO Greg Smith called out “physical AI applications” as the driver.
Key takeaways
- In September 2026 a wave of high‑profile announcements underscored the rapid expansion of humanoid robotics.
- NVIDIA unveiled “SONIC,” an AI controller that converts VR, video and natural‑language commands into robot actions, promising to broaden the motion repertoire of humanoids, while related work on “touch‑dreaming” techniques lifted task‑success rates by over 90 percent earlier in the year.
- Goldman Sachs dramatically raised its market outlook, projecting shipments of roughly 6.5 million humanoid robots by 2035—a five‑fold jump from its previous estimate—and valuing the sector at about $138 billion.
- In China, the People’s Liberation Army allocated about $300,000 in June to collect and label sensor data for fielded robots, and Reuters reported that the PLA is urging researchers to accelerate the transition of commercial humanoids into combat roles.
- That push coincided with Xpeng’s release of a video on September 11 showing its IRON humanoid walking off an assembly line unaided, and a Chinese startup, JoyIn, claiming its “Aether” model, built on a perceptive‑control approach, can achieve a 90 percent first‑attempt success rate—a claim it says mirrors OpenAI’s technology.
Buyer next steps
Compare source-backed options on HumanoidHub
Use HumanoidHub catalog records and buyer guides to verify robot availability, source links, and shortlist fit before contacting manufacturers.
On the test-and-automation layer, Teradyne reported Q2 2026 revenue of $1.329B, up 103.9% year over year, with Robotics revenue of $100 million, up 33% year over year. CEO Greg Smith called out “physical AI applications” as the driver.
On the humanoid layer itself, Tesla is installing first-generation Optimus production lines at Fremont after decommissioning Model S and X lines, and Elon Musk described an aspirational target of 10 million units a year of Optimus 4 versus a million units a year of Optimus 3. And on the commercialization analog, Intuitive Surgical closed the quarter with almost 13,000 systems installed worldwide, proving that robotics scaling in a regulated, mission-critical setting can compound for a decade.
Bottom Line Skip to content- [x]
⧉
Quick Read
Goldman Sachs projects 6.5 million humanoid robots shipped globally by 2035, and Teradyne has already surged 229% over the past year. Tesla installs Optimus production lines as Elon Musk targets 10 million annual units, while TSMC guides 40%+ full-year revenue growth through 2030. A voluntary AI slowdown flagged by Anthropic and OpenAI leaders remains the single risk that could stall Goldman's entire 6.5 million-unit build cycle. The professional research desk has always been the part of Wall Street that retail investors could not buy. AlphaSpace by Yahoo Finance opens one for $39.95 a month, and the first seven days cost nothing.1(Sponsor) Chris Lange · Sep 13, 2026
Investing
On Second Thought, Never Mind: Here’s Why ORCL’s Larry Ellison Just Canceled $7.5 Billion Stock Sale
Rich Duprey · Sep 13, 2026
Companies Mentioned
GS GS Goldman Sachs$1,029.18 +0.92%ISRG ISRG Intuitive Surgical$369.15 +2.41%NVDA NVDA NVIDIA$218.29 −0.03%TER TER Teradyne$379.72 +2.57%TSLA TSLA Tesla$365.44 +0.52%TSM TSM Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing$433.24 +1.22%
Continue Reading
Image 14: Jensen Huang wears a black leather jacket and wire-rimmed glasses, sitting against a neutral grey background, mouth slightly open as if mid-speech.
Jensen Huang Just Called Humanoid Robots a $40 Trillion Market. Here’s Why Wall Street Is Loading Up on Physical AI Stocks
New robots, funding, and signals. Every Thursday.
Unsubscribe anytime.
Mentioned in this article