Thematics: Humanoids – the next strategic imperative. The World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing highlighted astonishing progress with humanoids performing dance battles, martial arts, long jumps, and soccer, demonstrating significant advancement in mobility and coordination, though balance and consistency still require refinement. Meanwhile at the World Robotics Conference, humanoid robots displayed versatility in everyday tasks such as carrying boxes, sorting items, doing laundry, and managing retail operations, highlighting both the remarkable strides made and the challenges that remain in achieving human speed and efficiency.
Humanoid robotics are advancing quickly, driven by powerful structural forces. Demographics are a key catalyst, as aging populations and shrinking workforces in major economies strain labour availability. At the same time, global productivity growth has slowed, raising the urgency for automation that can flexibly replicate human tasks. Reshoring further amplifies this demand, as governments push to rebuild critical industries at home for national security reasons but face shortages in affordable labour. Humanoids offer a potential solution, bridging gaps in manufacturing, logistics, and services with human-like versatility.
Capital and policy are also aligning behind this shift, with Big Tech companies such as Tesla and Nvidia investing heavily in humanoid platforms, AI models, and chipsets to accelerate commercial viability. Meanwhile, China has identified humanoid robotics as a strategic industry, with a roadmap to build a world-class ecosystem by 2027. With such rapid advancements, the global humanoid robot market is projected to grow at a 31% CAGR from 2023 to 2033, reaching an estimated USD29.1bn, signalling a transformative era in automation.
Equity fund flows: During the week ended 13 Aug, global equity funds experienced notable inflows with Developed Market (DM) seeing substantial USD28.5bn inflows and Emerging Market (EM) registering USD2.1bn outflows. Within the DM space, both US and Europe Equity Funds reversed outflows from the prior week, recording inflows of USD21.2bn and USD0.7bn respectively. These inflows were likely spurred by better-than-expected headline inflation in July, pushing expectations of a September rate cut higher.
Source: Market.us, DBS
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