Robots
Robots — The Economics of Physical AI
A robot is just AI that learned to touch the world — built cheapest and shipped fastest in China. We cover the business of it: what humanoids cost, who's buying, and where the real opportunities are.
15 articles
You Can Now Get Paid to Teach Robots Your Chores. Here's What It Actually Pays
Agility's Digit 5 Just Lost Its Safety Cage. For Robots, the Cage Was a Big Part of the Bill
A Robot Body Now Costs $16,000. A Company That Builds No Robots Is Worth $14 Billion.
Google DeepMind shipped Gemini Robotics 2 in August. Nvidia's reference humanoid runs on Unitree hardware. Skild AI is valued above $14B with zero robots. The body is becoming a commodity and the money is moving to the brain, here's the math.
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A Humanoid Robot Now Costs $25 an Hour: Half a Human's Wage, and BMW Just Signed Up for More
Figure bills BMW roughly $25 per robot-operating-hour under a robot-as-a-service deal, against $50-70/hour automotive labor. After 11 months, 90,000 parts and 30,000 cars, BMW doubled down. Robot labor now has a price tag, here's what it changes.
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Nvidia and Amazon Just Backed Europe's $1.4 Billion Humanoid Robot, and Its €98,000 Worker Changes the Math
Neura Robotics just raised up to $1.4B at a $7B valuation: Europe's biggest humanoid bet, backed by Nvidia, Amazon, Qualcomm, Tether and the EU itself. Its Porsche-designed 4NE-1 costs €98,000 and has a €1B order book. Here's the ROI math on a robot worker.
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A $499/Month Robot Will Move Into Homes in 2026: But There's a Human Hiding Inside It
The 1X Neo home robot ships late 2026 at $20,000 or $499/month, backed by OpenAI. The catch nobody advertises: it's only 60-70% autonomous, a remote human teleoperator finishes the hard chores. Here's the real money math on the first consumer humanoid.
Read Article →Figure vs Tesla Optimus: One Robot Is Already Building Cars, the Other Is Still a Promise
Figure's robots built 30,000+ BMWs and its factory now ships one humanoid an hour. Tesla Optimus, despite $41B in cash, has zero external customers. The gap between shipping and promising is the whole investment story, here's what it means for you.
Read Article →China Is Putting $16,000 Robots on Factory Floors, and Quietly Getting Rich
China ships ~90% of the world's humanoid robots. Unitree sells one for $16K, just filed a $610M IPO, and grew revenue 335%. Here's who's actually making money, and how you can.
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Inside China's 'Dark Factories': Robots That Build a Phone Every 3 Seconds, All Night, With Nobody There
Xiaomi runs an 81,000 m² factory 24/7 with zero workers on the floor, one smartphone every ~3 seconds. China lost 30M factory jobs as exports hit records. Who profits, and how you position.
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How to Invest in the Humanoid Robot Boom Without Buying a Single Robot
Unitree's $610M IPO, the KOID robot ETF, rare-earth magnets, and Nvidia's chips, the real ways ordinary investors can get exposure to a market banks say hits $5 trillion by 2050.
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Unitree vs Tesla Optimus vs Figure: What a Humanoid Robot Actually Costs in 2026
Unitree G1 starts at ~$16K, Tesla Optimus targets $20-30K, Figure is valued at $39B, Agility's Digit runs $30/hour. A real price breakdown of the humanoid race, and where the money is.
Read Article →How to Make Money Importing Chinese Robots Before Everyone Else Does
A $5,900 Unitree R1 ships worldwide. Here's the honest solo playbook, reselling, integration, robot-as-a-service, and content, to earn from the humanoid boom while it's still early.
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Robot Dogs Are the Cheapest Way Into the Robot Business, and It Starts at $1,600
A Unitree Go2 robot dog costs $1,600, 96% less than Boston Dynamics' Spot. Here's how people turn a cheap Chinese quadruped into inspection, security, and content income.
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The Robot That Replaces a $45K Warehouse Worker for $12K
A warehouse humanoid rents for ~$30/hour and pays back in under 2 years, or you buy a Chinese one outright for $16K. The brutal ROI math reshaping who gets hired, and how you profit.
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Why Shenzhen Builds Humanoid Robots 10× Cheaper Than America
China controls 63% of the humanoid supply chain. Without Chinese parts, a robot's actuators jump from $22K to $58K. Why the West can't easily catch up, and how to profit anyway.
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