From AI bubble to robot revolution
In recent years, almost all market news has been about AI models, chips, and data centers. Investors know the charts of the major AI stocks by heart – and some are openly wondering: isn't this a bubble?
At the same time, another narrative is emerging. Executives from the largest technology companies are increasingly talking not just about software, but about a new industrial revolution. Their core message: the real productivity gains will only come when artificial intelligence gets a body. AI is the brain, robots are the hands and feet. You can now see that shift more broadly: 'embodied AI' is coming to the forefront – AI that not only analyzes or generates but performs tasks through sensors, actuators, and robotic systems.
This shifts the question for investors. For anyone seriously considering investing in robots, it is no longer just about: "Which AI chip or cloud company is growing the fastest?", but also: "Which companies can deploy that technology in the real world – in factories, warehouses, cities, and ultimately perhaps even in our homes?" It is precisely at this intersection of AI software and physical robotics that many economists and tech companies expect the largest leap in productivity: smart algorithms that not only generate texts and images but also control machines and entire production lines. The distinction between 'AI hype' and 'AI that gets work done' is becoming sharper – and that makes execution (integration, reliability, service) more important than just model performance.
eToro market analyst Jean-Paul van Oudheusden points out that the stock market is ahead of the real economy. If CEOs are already talking about robots as a driver of a new productivity wave, 2026 could very well become the year of the robot on the stock market – long before humanoids are walking through supermarkets en masse. That is precisely why this is the right moment to take this theme seriously.
Robots within the walls: factory and warehouse as testing ground
Industrial robots are not news in themselves. In 2025, there were already more than four million factory robots worldwide involved in production processes. Yet many investors underestimate how mature this market has become. According to the International Federation of Robotics, the number of operational industrial robots is growing year on year, with countries like China, Japan, South Korea, and Germany now among the most robotized industries in the world.
Look at the automotive industry. In modern factories – think of Tesla, but also traditional players – most of the work on the assembly line is done by robots: welding, spraying, placing parts, quality control. Humans are shifting to supervision, maintenance, and specialized tasks.
Closer to home, Albert Heijn opened an almost fully automated distribution center in Zaandam in 2019. Where previously about 120 employees manually sorted crates and assembled orders, automated systems and shuttles now come and go. The technology comes from Vanderlande in Veghel, which also has a strong presence in the automated baggage handling at Schiphol.
For the companies in this chain, this is no longer an experiment but core business. The benefits are clear:
- higher productivity per square meter,
- less dependence on scarce or expensive personnel,
- predictable quality and fewer errors.
For investors, this is interesting because it involves structural improvements. Companies that succeed in extensively robotizing their operations build a competitive edge: lower costs, better scalability, and often higher margins. This is exactly the kind of foundation that creates long-term value – regardless of the hype surrounding the word "AI". It is precisely this type of "ROI-first" robotics (warehouse, logistics, production) that many parties see as the short-term route to scale – rather than the most spectacular consumer demos.
Robots go outside: mobility, logistics, and even space
So far, robots have mainly operated within the walls of factories, distribution centers, and airports. The next phase is that they will increasingly go "outside" and become part of our daily street scene.
Delivery drones are a first example of this. Where initially manned test flights were needed, drones are now autonomously flying packages or medical supplies back and forth in various projects. Cars are following that movement.
This "going outside" is also seen in mobility: Bolt and Pony.ai are working on the rollout of autonomous vehicles in Europe, aiming for scaling in 2026.
In San Francisco, Waymo's robot taxis are now completing a substantial portion of the rides in the city – no longer as a gimmick, but as a serious alternative to traditional ride-sharing. More and more cities and regulators are allowing trial programs with autonomous vehicles under certain conditions, allowing real-world data and scaling experience to accumulate rapidly.
At Hong Kong International Airport, a driver can simply leave their car with Huawei software in front of the parking garage. The car then drives itself to a free spot and can later return via an app. It is a small, concrete example of what happens when vehicles are not only "connected" but also truly autonomous.
Even in space, robots are advancing. The renaming of Amazon's satellite project to Amazon LEO (low-earth orbit) is more than a marketing detail. It shows that major players see distribution and connectivity via satellites as a serious pillar. Autonomous systems in space play a crucial role in this: from communication to future logistical concepts.
For investors, the lesson is clear: robotics does not affect just one sector, but an entire chain at once:
- mobility (autonomous driving, robot taxis),
- logistics (warehouse layout, drones, sorting centers),
- infrastructure (satellites, networks),
- and the enabling layer beneath: chipmakers, cloud providers, sensors, telecom.
For those considering investing in robots, this is an important insight: robots are no longer a niche of a few industrial players, but a theme that cuts broadly through the economy and value chain.
Robots get a face: humanoids as the next step
If you line up all the examples, the step to so-called humanoids is much less bizarre than it seems at first glance. A humanoid is simply a robot with a human-like form: arms, legs, torso, head. Not because it looks nice, but because then you can operate in the same world as humans – climbing stairs, lifting a box from a shelf, opening a door.
Visionaries like Elon Musk (Tesla) and He Xiaopeng (Xpeng) speak openly about it. Musk expects that a significant portion of Tesla's future revenue will ultimately come not from cars, but from his humanoid Optimus. In China, companies like Xpeng are working on their own humanoid platforms, linked to their knowledge of electric drive, batteries, and software.
On the chip side, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang recently stated that humanoid robots represent the "next wave" after generative AI, and that their large-scale deployment in factories is, according to him, not a far-off dream but could happen within a few years – not just over a vague, decades-long timeline.
On the chip side, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang warns that the large-scale deployment of humanoids may not be a matter of decades, but of a few years. His motivation is clear: as AI models can handle more complex tasks and the costs of robot hardware decrease, the large-scale replacement of repetitive human labor suddenly becomes economically interesting.
Among the 'enablers', NVIDIA stands out: the revenue mix shows how large the demand for computing power (data centers and applications) has become.
Today, many people still see only clumsy prototypes that stumble or dance at trade shows, like at CES 2026. The same was true for the first electric cars. For investors, the core question is not whether the current generation of humanoids is perfect, but:
- how quickly costs can decrease,
- how quickly the software becomes smarter,
- and which companies hold the building blocks – sensors, actuators, chips, operating systems, cloud – and whether the system can run reliably, safely, and affordably, with maintenance, updates, and liability as fixed 'rules of the game'.
A new ecosystem is emerging here, with value chains that can already be tracked on the stock market. For those considering investing in robots, the investability of humanoids mainly depends on the same factors as above: how quickly costs decrease, how quickly the software becomes smarter, and who owns the building blocks – and whether the system can run reliably, safely, and affordably, with maintenance, updates, and liability as fixed 'rules of the game'.
The impact on the economy, labor market, and infrastructure
Those who think through robot development will quickly see – especially when considering investing in robots – that it goes beyond "nice, a robotic arm in the factory". The implications for the economy, labor market, and infrastructure are significant. Various studies cite robotization as one of the factors that could significantly increase labor productivity in the coming years, but also as a source of substantial shifts in the labor market between routine and non-routine jobs.
At the lower end of the labor market, repetitive tasks are particularly under pressure: stocking shelves, order picking, simple assembly, sorting work. This does not mean that all those jobs will disappear tomorrow, but rather that the ratio between humans and machines in many sectors is structurally shifting. For companies, it is attractive to deploy scarce employees in customer contact, creative work, and management – and let machines do the monotonous work.
Robotization does not mean "humans out": in practice, work is often shifting towards collaboration between humans and robots, especially in sectors with structural shortages.
Because almost all modern robots are connected to the internet or internal company networks, the importance of cybersecurity is increasing significantly. Any device that exchanges data can theoretically be hacked. The smarter and more autonomous robots become, the more important update policies, supply chain security, and OT/ICS security become as prerequisites for scaling.
This is not hypothetical: ENISA signals in the Threat Landscape 2025 a more complex and persistent threat landscape, particularly around digital dependencies.
This makes cybersecurity not just an IT issue, but an integral part of the industrial strategy. Regulators and security experts also warn that the growth of industrial IoT devices and autonomous systems increases the attack surface and that investments in OT and ICS security become crucial.
As robots and OT systems become more connected, the attack surface also grows – with attack techniques that in 2025 explicitly targeted both cloud and operations.
In new factories and distribution centers, you can already see the outlines of "robot-first" design: buildings that are designed from day one around robots and automated flows, rather than a traditional building where robots are added later. Cities will eventually follow suit, in the form of smart cities with smart traffic lights, autonomous shuttles, and automated energy and waste systems.
Large industrial players, such as Schneider Electric, are developing complete smart city and smart grid concepts in which energy, mobility, and industrial processes are controlled through a single digital layer – exactly the kind of infrastructure where large-scale robotization can take place.
Companies like Schneider Electric are working on blueprints for such smart cities, where energy, mobility, and industrial processes are integrated and controlled. This can only happen if there is a lot of technical knowledge available. Education in industrial design, electrical engineering, and civil engineering needs more students than it currently has – and companies that fail to attract enough engineers and developers will simply fall behind.
Finally, robotization – just like electrification in a broad sense – requires much more energy and a much stronger network. More electric drive, more data centers, more charging points, more continuously running systems. This means opportunities for everything related to energy infrastructure, network reinforcement, power electronics, and smart control.
What does this mean concretely for investors?
For investors who want to invest in robots, "robots" is not a single stock, but a theme with multiple layers. Roughly, you can think in three categories:
1. Hardware builders
Manufacturers of industrial robots, warehouse automation, medical robots, and – further into the future – humanoids. These are often capital-intensive companies, but with strong barriers to entry once they achieve scale.
2. Software and AI players
Companies focusing on computer vision, planning algorithms, control software, and the integration of AI into physical systems. Sometimes they overlap with pure AI names, but often they are more specialized players.
3. Enablers
The underlying layer: semiconductor companies, sensor manufacturers, cloud and network players, cybersecurity companies, energy and network infrastructure, system integrators. Without them, the robot revolution simply does not exist.
In terms of time horizon, these layers overlap. Part of the robot revolution is already profitable: think of existing factory robots, warehouse automation, and baggage systems. Other components – such as humanoids in offices or healthcare institutions, fully autonomous cities, or space robots – are clearly more future stories with higher risks and higher potential.
Investing in this theme can be done in various ways:
- choosing individual stocks of companies that are well-positioned in robotics or automation (higher risk, more work in terms of analysis);
- using thematic ETFs or funds around robotics, automation, or "future of work" to spread broadly in one go – for example, there are global robotics and AI ETFs that bundle a basket of dozens of companies in this chain, so you don't have to pick the winners yourself;
- viewing robotics as an additional layer in an existing portfolio, not as something to bet everything on.
There are also clear risks
- valuations in AI and robotics-related sectors have often already risen significantly;
- regulation can put a brake on certain applications (safety of robot taxis, privacy in smart cities, labor legislation);
- technological flop risks: not every promising robot startup or humanoid producer will make it to the finish line.
The core is thus: robots are a promising theme, but require diversification, realism, and a long-term perspective.
Conclusion: why you want to have robots on your radar now and consider investing in robots
The discussion about a possible AI bubble mainly revolves around expectations, valuations, and hype. But zooming in on robots reveals something different: here the bridge is being built between the digital and physical worlds. Production lines are becoming faster and more efficient, distribution centers smarter, vehicles more autonomous, and cities gradually "smart".
For investors, this means three things:
- those who only look at AI software and data centers miss a large part of the value chain;
- robots – from industrial arms in a factory to humanoids in development – are likely to become a structural part of the global economy;
- the stock market will generally price this in earlier than we see it in our daily lives around us.
Whether 2026 will actually be the year of the robot remains to be seen. But the movement itself seems hard to ignore. Perhaps the most important question for investors is no longer whether robots will change our economy, but whether your portfolio – and your approach to investing in robots – is already prepared for it.
