Morgan Stanley said a tight labor market is driving the use of robotics and predicted that humanoid robots, or robots with human forms, will flourish. “Advances in artificial intelligence are transforming the robotics industry,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a June 26 report titled “Humanoid Robots: The Investment Implications of Embedded Artificial Intelligence.” They added: “Labor shortages and demographic trends increase the commercial relevance and path to adoption (and economic payback period) across industries.” The bank predicts the humanoid population will reach 40,000 by 2030 and 800 by 2040 million, and will reach 63 million by 2050. More likely to do jobs humans don’t want to do. “We see a more optimistic future than the tech slowdowners paint – one in which robots continue to complement and further enhance human labor and productivity, and mundane and dangerous jobs can be outsourced,” they write. “But perhaps more pressing is that we The stark reality of the need for humanoid robots ” Morgan Stanley isn’t the only company bullish on humanoid robots. Last month, Tesla CEO Musk claimed that his company’s Optimus robot could eventually give the automaker a market value of $25 trillion – more than half the S&P 500’s market value. In January, a demonstration video showed the Optimus robot folding laundry. However, it has been strongly criticized by engineers because the robots are operated by humans and are not autonomous. Still, Morgan Stanley outlines a number of industries that could benefit from humanoid robots, with social care likely to be the largest potential market. The bank said the cost of building a humanoid robot could range from $10,000 to $300,000, but added that “efficiencies of scale, the introduction of artificial intelligence algorithms significantly shorten development cycles, and the use of cost-effective components” from China, We see an opportunity to significantly reduce costs. Analysts compiled a list of 66 stocks they said “best express the humanoid theme.” They are classified as enablers – defined as companies developing such robots or their inputs (such as “brains and bodies”) – or beneficiaries, defined as companies that could benefit from a humanoid workforce – or both Yes. Here are some of the stocks on Morgan Stanley’s list. They include names from the United States, Asia and Europe: —CNBC’s Michael Bloom and Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
