If you grew up with The Jetsons, you remember Rosie—the cheerful house robot who did the boring stuff. Seventy-five years later, Rosie may make the jump from cartoon to reality.
From Rosie to Reality: The Rise of Humanoid Robots
Brett Adcock at robotics start-up Figure has shown a humanoid robot loading a dishwasher and doing laundry (in his home with his young children within inches of the robot). The Figure 02 robot is learning to do the mundane well. Figure is also piloting at BMW’s Spartanburg plant; the claim is ten-hour shifts for months, even a 20-hour stretch, doing parts picking and jig placement. We’ll want more plant-level confirmations as this scales, but if those hours hold, it’s a milestone. Tesla is already deploying many Optimus humanoid robots at factories.
This follows the pattern we’ve seen in artificial intelligence (AI) software—the big tech companies are the first to test and use AI written software. It has largely replaced human code in just a couple of years. The Figure and Tesla will perfect the technology in factories and then sell it to the industry and finally to consumers.
Robots Already Shipping: From Factory Floors to Your Home
Here’s the part most investors miss: Rosie already ships. Unitree, in China, is taking orders today. Their smaller humanoid G1 lists around $16,000 US; the larger H1 is about $90,000 US; the Go2 robotic dog starts near $1,600 US. In short: you can now buy a capable robot for the price of a compact car or a robotic dog for less than a flagship phone. Tesla’s Optimus bot is also a strong contender. The future is here, it’s just unevenly distributed.
The Productivity Dividend for Investors
Why this matters for your portfolios is simple: productivity pays for valuations. A robot that runs long shifts without fatigue, guided by improving AI, raises output from the same floor space and supervisory headcount. Stock markets can continue to rise if this productivity gain materializes (even after the runup we’ve already had in AI related names).
Big Players and Big Ambitions: Figure, Tesla, and More
Figure’s CEO has floated a goal of shipping up to 100,000 humanoids over the next four years. Tesla says it plans to deploy thousands of Optimus units internally before wider sales, with long-term talk of meaningful volume and a price band in the tens of thousands.
A Historic Shift: The Age of Embodied AI
Rosie freed up George and Jane from housework and chores. Humanoid robots could eventually take over these jobs for us, delivering the most valuable thing we have—time. Time a factory doesn’t lose between shifts. Time skilled-workers get back when the dull and the dangerous jobs are handled by machines that don’t mind repetition. The first wave of AI helped with keystrokes and meetings; the next wave is embodied—taking action in the physical world.
For investors like you and me, the headline is straightforward: this is the productivity unlock that can justify further gains as embodied AI moves from demos to day-to-day work. We have front row seats to the most consequential technological revolution of history. What a time to be alive!
Glen