The advent of AI is paving the way for full-fledged humanoid robots. While the technology may still be in the developmental stages at present, it is advancing by leaps and bounds. And it is not just Elon Musk’s electric vehicle company, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA), with its Optimus. Indeed, there are multiple startups armed with a heavy dose of funding.
This week, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), and Ark Invest joined other investors in pouring millions of dollars into Figure AI, a startup focused on developing general-purpose humanoids. FigureAI is also teaming up with OpenAI to develop AI models for humanoids.
Moreover, Figure has partnered with BMW Manufacturing (OTC:BMWYY) to develop humanoids for automotive production. Early-stage investment major Y Combinator has already added robotics and machine learning to its areas of interest. In China, a humanoid developed by UBTECH Robotics is already working on EV maker NIO’s (NYSE:NIO) assembly line in Hefei. Toyota’s (NYSE:TM) humanoid Punyo is being trained to handle an array of large-sized objects.
While others may be optimistic, Elon Musk seems to be gung-ho about the potential of this technology. The Tesla supremo expects nearly a billion humanoids to roam this planet in the 2040s, according to Reuters. Most recently, Musk shared a video of “Optimus strolling around the lab.”
Is Tesla a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Still, what the advances in this technology could mean for the labor market a few years down the line is anybody’s guess. For now, though, the Street has a Hold consensus rating on Tesla alongside an average price target of $214.44. Shares of the company have declined by nearly 18% over the past six months.
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