After my first post on humanoid robots received a lot of positive feedback, I went into more detail. I have subsequently added my favorites in each sector.
Extended analysis of the value chain including shovel manufacturers and potential hidden champions
New categorySecondary key sectors (sales, marketing, financing)
In additionTop 25 companies worldwide, as well as Top 10 Europe and Top 10 Asia
I have also added a video link for beginners. This will give you an idea of how far the development of humanoid robotics has already progressed.
Thank you for your attention and your support 🙏
🌐 1. value chain of humanoid robots (with hidden champions)
1. research & chip design
$ARM ARM (UK) - CPU-IP, energy-efficient processors
$SNPS Synopsys (US) - EDA software, chip design
$CDNS Cadence (US) - EDA & Simulation
$PTC PTC (US) - Engineering Software, CAD/PLM
$DSY Dassault Systèmes (FR) - 3D Design & Digital Twin
$SIE Siemens (DE) - Industrial Software & Lifecycle Mgmt
$ADBE Adobe (US) - Design, AR/UX
ANSYS (US) - multiphysical simulation - acquisition by Synopsis
Altair (US) - CAE, simulation, digital twin - acquisition by Siemens
$HXGBY
Hexagon (SE) - Metrology & Simulation
$AWE Alphawave IP Group (UK) - High-speed chip IP for AI/robotics
1.Synopsis, 2.Siemens and 3.Adobe are my top 3 in this sector
2. manufacturing technology & equipment
$ASML ASML (NL) - Lithography (EUV)
$AMAT Applied Materials (US) - Semiconductor equipment
$8035 Tokyo Electron (JP) - wafer fabrication
$KEYS Keysight Technologies (US) - Metrology
$6857 Advantest (JP) - Chip test systems
$TER Teradyne (US) - test systems + cobots
$6954 Fanuc (JP) - Industrial robots, CNC
$CAT Caterpillar (US) - autonomous machines
$KU2G KUKA (DE) - industrial robots
Comau (IT) - automation - not listed on the stock exchange
$ROK Rockwell Automation (US) - industrial automation
$JBL Jabil (US) - contract manufacturing (EMS/ODM)
$KIT Kitron (NO) - European EMS/ODM manufacturer
$AIXA Aixtron (DE) - deposition equipment for compound semiconductors
$LRCX
Lam Research (US) - Etch/deposition systems
$MKSI
MKS Instruments (US) - Plasma/vacuum technology
$ASM
ASM International (NL) - Deposition systems
1.ASML, 2.Keysight Technologies, 3.Fanuc are my top 3 in this sector
3. chip manufacturing (foundries)
$TSM TSMC (TW) - leading foundry
$005930 Samsung Electronics (KR) - foundry + memory
$GFS GlobalFoundries (US) - specialty chips
$INTC
Intel Foundry Services (US) - new western foundry player
$981
SMIC (CN) - largest Chinese foundry
$UMC
UMC (TW) - Power/RF/Embedded chips
1.TSMC, 2.Intel, 3.Samsung Electronics are my top 3 in this sector
4. computing & control unit ("brain")
$NVDA Nvidia (US) - GPUs, AI chips
$INTC Intel (US) - CPUs, FPGAs
$AMD AMD (US) - CPUs, GPUs
$MRVL Marvell (US) - network chips
$MU Micron (US) - Memory
$DELL Dell Technologies (US) - Edge & Infrastructure
Graphcore (UK) - AI chips (IPU) - not a listed company
Cerebras (US) - Wafer-scale engine - not a listed company
SiPearl (FR) - European HPC chip - not a listed company
1.Nvidia, 2.Marvell, 3.Micron are my top 3 in this sector
5. sensors ("senses")
$6758 Sony (JP) - image sensors
$6861 Keyence (JP) - Industrial sensors
$STM STMicroelectronics (FR/IT) - Sensors, MCUs
$TDY Teledyne (US) - optical/infrared sensors
$CGNX Cognex (US) - Machine Vision
$HON Honeywell (US) - sensor technology, security
ANYbotics (CH) - autonomous sensor fusion - not a listed company
$OUST
Velodyne Lidar (US) - Lidar sensors - takeover by Ouster
$AMS
-OSRAM (AT/DE) - optical sensors
1.Teledyne, 2.Keyence, 3.Ouster are my top 3 in this sector
6. actuators & power electronics ("muscles")
$IFX Infineon (DE) - Power Electronics
$ON onsemi (US) - Power & Sensors
$TXN Texas Instruments (US) - Mixed-Signal Chips
$ADI Analog Devices (US) - Signal Processing
$PH Parker-Hannifin (US) - Hydraulics/Pneumatics
$MP MP Materials (US) - Magnets
$APH Amphenol (US) - Connectors
$6481 THK (JP) - Linear guides & actuators
$6324
Harmonic Drive (JP) - Precision gears & servo drives for robotics
$6594
Nidec (JP) - Electric motors
$6506
Yaskawa (JP) - Drives & Robotics
$SU
Schneider Electric (FR) - Energy & control solutions
$ZIL2
ElringKlinger (DE) - Battery & fuel cell technology, lightweight construction
1.Parker-Hannifin, 2.MP Materials, 3.Infinion are my top 3 in this sector
7. communication & networking ("nerves")
$QCOM Qualcomm (US) - mobile communications, edge AI
$ANET Arista Networks (US) - Networks
$CSCO Cisco (US) - Networks, Security
$EQIX Equinix (US) - Data centers
NTT Docomo (JP) - 5G/6G carrier - not a listed company
$VZ Verizon (US) - Telecommunications
$SFTBY SoftBank (JP) - Carrier + Robotics
$ERIC B
Ericsson (SE) - 5G/IoT infrastructure
$NOKIA
Nokia (FI) - 5G/6G for industry
$HPE
Juniper Networks (US) - Network technology - acquisition by HP
1.Arista Networks, 2.SoftBank, 3.Cisco are my top 3 in this sector
8. energy supply
$3750 CATL (CN) - Batteries
$6752 Panasonic (JP) - Batteries
$373220 LG Energy (KR) - Batteries
$ALB Albemarle (US) - Lithium
$LYC Lynas (AU) - Rare earths
$UMICY Umicore (BE) - recycling
WiTricity (US) - inductive charging - not a listed company
$ABBN Charging (CH) - charging infrastructure
$SLDP
Solid Power (US) - Solid state batteries
Northvolt (SE) - European batteries - not a listed company
$PLUG
Plug Power (US) - fuel cells
1.Albemarle, 2.CATL, 3.Panasonic are my top 3 in this sector
9. cloud & infrastructure
$AMZN Amazon AWS (US) - Cloud, AI
$MSFT Microsoft Azure (US) - Cloud, AI
$GOOG Alphabet Google Cloud (US) - Cloud, ML
$VRT
Vertiv Holdings (US) - Data center infrastructure (UPS, cooling, edge)
$ORCL
Oracle Cloud (US) - ERP + Cloud
$IBM
IBM Cloud (US) - Hybrid cloud + AI
$OVH
OVHcloud (FR) - European cloud
1.Alphabet, 2.Microsoft, 3.Oracle are my top 3 in this sector
10. software & data platforms
$PLTR Palantir (US) - Data integration
$DDOG Datadog (US) - Monitoring
$SNOW Snowflake (US) - Data Cloud
$ORCL Oracle (US) - Databases, ERP
$SAP SAP (DE) - ERP systems
$SPGI S&P Global (US) - financial/market data
ROS2 Foundation - robotics middleware - not listed on the stock exchange
$NVDA NVIDIA Isaac (US) - robotics development - part of Nvidia
$INOD Innodata (US) - data annotation & AI training data
$PATH
UiPath (RO/US) - Robotic process automation
$AI
C3.ai (US) - AI platform
$ESTC
(NL/US) - Search & data analysis
1.S&P Global, 2.Palantir, 3.Datadog are my top 3 in this sector
11. end applications / robots
$ABB ABB (CH/SE) - Industrial Robots
$6954 Fanuc (JP) - Industrial robots
$TSLA Tesla Optimus (US) - humanoid robot
$9618 JD.com (CN) - logistics robot
$AAPL Apple (US) - Platform & UX
$700 Tencent (CN) - Platform & AI
$9988 Alibaba (CN) - logistics & platform
PAL Robotics (ES) - humanoid robots - not a listed company
Neura Robotics (DE) - cognitive humanoid robots - not a listed company
$TER Universal Robots (DK) - cobots - belongs to the Teradyne Corporation
Engineered Arts (UK) - humanoid robots - not a listed company
$ISRG Intuitive Surgical (US) - surgical robotics
$GMED
Globus Medical (US) - surgical robotics (ExcelsiusGPS platform)
$7012 Kawasaki Heavy Industries (JP) - industrial robots, automation
$CPNG Coupang (KR) - Logistics end user
$IRBT
iRobot (US) - consumer robotics (e.g. Roomba), non-humanoid, but navigation/sensor fusion
Boston Dynamics (US) - humanoid & mobile robots-no listed company
Hanson Robotics (HK) - humanoid robots (Sophia) - not a listed company
Agility Robotics (US) - humanoid robot "Digit" - not a listed company
1.Apple, 2.Tencent, 3.Alibaba are my top 3 in this sector
🛠 2. cross enablers (shovel manufacturers) - with hidden champions
Raw materials & battery materials
Albemarle - Lynas - Umicore
$SQM
SQM (CL) - Lithium
$ILU
Iluka Resources (AU) - Rare earths
$ARR
American Rare Earths (US/AU) - New supply chains
my number 1 in the sector is Albemarle
manufacturing technology
ASML - Applied Materials - Tokyo Electron
$LRCX
Lam Research (US) - Plasma/etching processes
$ASM
ASM International (NL) - ALD equipment
$MKSI
MKS Instruments (US) - Plasma/vacuum technology
my number 1 in the sector is ASML
Quality assurance
Keysight - Advantest - Teradyne
$EMR
National Instruments (US) - Measurement technology - from Emerson Electric adopted
$300567
ATE Test Systems (CN) - test systems
$FORM
FormFactor (US) - Wafer probing
my number 1 in the sector is Keysight
Motion & Drive
Parker-Hannifin
Festo (DE) - Pneumatics, Soft Robotics - not a listed company
Bosch Rexroth (DE) - Drives, Controls - not a listed company
$6481
THK (JP) - Linear guides
my number 1 in the sector is Parker-Hannifin
Sensors/Imaging
$TDY Teledyne
$BSL Basler (DE) - Industrial cameras
FLIR (US) - Thermal imaging sensors - acquisition by Teledyne
ISRA Vision (DE) - Machine Vision - not a listed company
my number 1 in the sector is Teledyne
Magnets & Materials
MP Materials
$6501
Hitachi Metals (JP) - Magnetic materials
VacuumSchmelze (DE) - Magnetic materials - not a listed company
$4063
Shin-Etsu Chemical (JP) - Specialty materials
my number 1 in the sector is MP Materials
Chip Design & Simulation
Synopsys - Cadence - ARM
$SIE
Siemens EDA (DE/US)-Mentor Graphics-strategic business unit of Siemens AG
Imagination Tech (UK) - GPU-IP - not a listed company
$CEVA
CEVA (IL) - Signal Processor IP
my number 1 in the sector is Synopsys
Engineering & Lifecycle
PTC - Dassault - Siemens
Altair (US) - Simulation - no longer a listed company
$HXGBY
Hexagon (SE) - Metrology
$SNPS
ANSYS (US) - Simulation - takeover by Synopsys
my number 1 in the sector is Siemens
Networks & Data Centers
Arista - Cisco - Equinix
$HPE
Juniper (US) - Networks - Acquisition of HPE
$DTE
T-Systems (DE) - Industry cloud
$OVH
OVHcloud (FR) - European cloud
my number 1 in the sector is Arista
Cloud infrastructure
AWS - Azure - Google Cloud
$ORCL
Oracle Cloud (US) - ERP & databases
$IBM
IBM Cloud (US) - Hybrid Cloud
$9988
Alibaba Cloud (CN) - Asian Cloud
$VRT
Vertiv Holdings (US) - Cloud/Infra
my number 1 in the sector is Alphabet (Google)
finance/information infra
S&P Global
$MCO
Moody's (US) - Ratings
$MSCI
MSCI (US) - Indices
$MORN
Morningstar (US) - Investment Research
my number 1 in the sector is S&P Global
Creative/Experience Infra
Adobe
$ADSK
Autodesk (US) - CAD & Design
$U
Unity (US) - 3D/AR simulation
Epic Games (US) - Unreal Engine - not a listed company
my number 1 in the sector is Adobe
Platform & Ecosystem
Apple - Tencent - Alibaba
$META
Meta (US) - AR/VR, Social Robotics
ByteDance (CN) - AI & platforms - not a listed company
$9888
Baidu (CN) - AI & Cloud
my number 1 in the sector is Tencent
Infrastructure/Edge
Dell
$HPE
HPE (US) - Edge Computing
$SMCI
Supermicro (US) - AI servers
$6702
Fujitsu (JP) - Edge & HPC
my number 1 in the sector is Dell
storage solutions
Micron
$000660
SK Hynix (KR) - Memory
$285A
Kioxia (JP) - NAND
$WDC
Western Digital (US) - Storage solutions
my number 1 in the sector is Micron
🏛 3. secondary key sectors with hidden champions
Financing & Capital
$GS Goldman Sachs (US) - investment bank; ECM/DCM, M&A, growth financing
$MS Morgan Stanley (US) - investment bank; tech banking, capital markets
$BLK BlackRock (US) - asset manager; capital allocation, ETFs/index funds
$9984 SoftBank Vision Fund (JP) - mega VC; growth equity in robotics/AI
Sequoia Capital (US) - venture capital; early/growth in AI/robotics - this is a classic venture capital fund
DARPA (US) - government R&D funding (robotics/defense) - independent research and development agency
EU Horizon (EU) - research funding/grants for DeepTech - Innovative Europe pillar
China State Funds (CN) - state industry/technology fund
Lux Capital (US) - VC for DeepTech - Uptake (US) - AI-based predictive maintenance
DCVC (US) - Robotics & AI focus - investing exclusively via VC fund investments
Speedinvest (AT) - EU VC for robotics - access to investment only via fund investments
my number 1 in the sector is Goldman Sachs
Maintenance & Service
$SIE Siemens (DE) - Industrial Service, Lifecycle & Retrofit
$ABBN ABB (CH/SE) - Robotics Service, Spare Parts, Field Support
$GEHC GE Healthcare (US) - Medtech service incl. robotic systems
Uptake (US) - AI-based predictive maintenance - not a listed company
Augury (US/IL) - condition monitoring, condition diagnostics - not a listed company
$KU2 KUKA Service (DE) - Robotics maintenance
$6954 Fanuc Service (JP) - global service network
Boston Dynamics AI Institute (US) - Robotics longevity - funded by Hyundai Motor Group
my number 1 in the sector is Siemens
Marketing & Advertising
$WPP WPP (UK) - global advertising group; branding/communications
$OMC Omnicom (US) - marketing/PR network
$PUB Publicis (FR) - communications/advertising group
$META Meta (US) - Digital Ads (Facebook/Instagram)
$GOOG Google Ads (US) - search & display advertising
TikTok / ByteDance (CN) - social ads & distribution - not a listed company
$AAPL Apple (US) - Branding/UX; Acceptance & Platform Marketing
$WPP
AKQA (UK/US) - Tech branding - Since 2012 majority owned by the WPP Groupbut continues to operate as an autonomous operating unit
R/GA (US) - Innovation marketing - not a listed company
Serviceplan (DE) - largest independent EU agency - not a listed company
my number 1 in the sector is Meta
Law, Regulation & Ethics
ISO (CH) - international standards, robotics standards
TÜV (DE) - certification & safety tests
UL (US) - safety/conformity testing
EU AI Act (EU) - legal framework for AI & robotics
UNESCO AI Ethics (UN) - global ethics guidelines
Fraunhofer IPA (DE) - Robotics safety standards
ANSI (US) - standards
IEC (CH) - Electrical engineering standards
Training & Talent
MIT (US) - Robotics/AI Research & Education
ETH Zurich (CH) - autonomous systems & robotics
Stanford (US) - AI/Robotics labs & spin-offs
Tsinghua University (CN) - Robotics/AI in Asia
CMU (US) - Robotics Institute
EPFL (CH) - Robotics research
TU Munich (DE) - humanoid robot "Roboy"
🌍 Top 25 companies for humanoid robotics
These companies are central to the development & production of humanoid robotsbecause without them, crucial parts of the chain would be missing:
Chips & computing power (brain of the robots)
$NVDA Nvidia (US) - AI GPUs & Isaac platform, foundation for robotic AI
$2330 TSMC (TW) - world's most important foundry, produces the AI chips
$ASML ASML (NL) - EUV lithography, indispensable for chip production
$005930 Samsung Electronics (KR) - memory, logic, foundry
$000660 SK Hynix (KR) - DRAM & NAND memory for AI
$MU Micron (US) - Memory solutions for AI workloads
my number 1 in the sector is ASML
Sensors & perception (senses of robots)
$SONY Sony (JP) - image sensors, market leader
$6861 Keyence (JP) - Industrial sensors & vision systems
$CGNX Cognex (US) - Machine Vision, precise image processing
my number 1 in the sector is Keyence
Actuators & motion (muscles of robots)
$IFX Infineon (DE) - power electronics, motor control
$6594 Nidec (JP) - World market leader for electric motors
$PH Parker-Hannifin (US) - hydraulics/pneumatics, motion technology
$6481 THK (JP) - Linear guides & actuators
my number 1 in the sector is Parker-Hannifin
Communication, cloud & infrastructure (nerves & data flow)
$QCOM Qualcomm (US) - Mobile & Edge Chips
$AMZN Amazon AWS (US) - Cloud & AI infrastructure
$MSFT Microsoft Azure (US) - Cloud, AI services
$CSCO Cisco (US) - Networks & Security
$VRT Vertiv Holdings (US) - Data Center Infrastructure
my number 1 in the sector is Microsoft
End Applications & Platforms (robots themselves)
$TSLA Tesla (US) - humanoid robot Optimus
$ABBN ABB (CH/SE) - Robotics & Automation
$6954 Fanuc (JP) - industrial robots & CNC systems
$7012 Kawasaki Heavy Industries (JP) - industrial robots
PAL Robotics (ES) - humanoid robots (TALOS, ARI, TIAGo) - not a listed company
Neura Robotics (DE) - cognitive humanoid robots - not a listed company
Universal Robots (DK) - cobots
my number 1 in the sector is Tesla
🇪🇺 Top 10 European key companies for humanoid robotics
$ASML
ASML (NL)
World market leader in EUV lithography - no modern chips for AI & robotics without ASML.
$IFX Infineon (DE)
Leading in power electronics & motor control - crucial for actuators of humanoid robots.
$STM
STMicroelectronics (FR/IT)
Sensors, microcontrollers & power chips - the basis for control & perception.
$SAP
SAP (DE)
ERP & data platforms, important for integrating humanoid robots into industrial processes.
$SIE
Siemens (DE)
Industrial software, automation, digital twin - key for engineering & lifecycle management.
$KU2 KUKA (EN)
Robotics pioneer, industrial robots & automation - know-how for humanoid motion mechanics.
PAL Robotics (ES) - not a listed company
Specialist for humanoid robots (TALOS, ARI, TIAGo), internationally used in research & service.
Neura Robotics (DE) - Not a listed company
Young high-tech company, develops cognitive humanoid robots with advanced AI (4NE-1).
Universal Robots (DK) - Not a listed company
Market leader for cobots - platform for safe human-robot collaboration.
Engineered Arts (UK) - not a listed company
Develops humanoid robots such as Amecaknown for realistic facial expressions & gestures - important for HRI (Human-Robot Interaction)
🌏 Top 10 Asian key companies for humanoid robotics
$2330
TSMC (Taiwan)
World's largest semiconductor foundry, produces high-end chips (e.g. Nvidia, AMD, Apple) - no AI hardware without TSMC.
$005930
Samsung Electronics (South Korea)
Foundry, memory, logic chips, image sensors - extremely broadly positioned in robotics components.
$000660
SK Hynix (KR) - Memory
$SONY
Sony (Japan)
Market leader in CMOS image sensors, essential for robotic vision & perception.
$6861
Keyence (Japan)
Sensor technology & machine vision for industrial automation, widely used in robotics.
$6954
Fanuc (Japan)
Industrial robots & CNC systems, one of the most important manufacturers of robotics hardware worldwide.
$6506
Yaskawa Electric (Japan)
Drives, motion control & robot arms - relevant for humanoid motion control.
$6594
Nidec (Japan)
World market leader for electric motors (from mini motors to high-performance drives).
$7012
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (JP) - Industrial robots
$9618
JD.com (China)
Driver for robotics in e-commerce & logistics, invests in humanoid robotics applications