$KDP (+1,57%)
$7751 (+0,04%)
$NXPI (-0,13%)
$WM (-1,14%)
$CDNS (-0,09%)
$BN (-0,21%)
$SOFI (-0,96%)
$UNH (-1,97%)
$AMT (+1,61%)
$UPS (+0,37%)
$BNP (+1,65%)
$NVS (-1,31%)
$DB1 (+0,72%)
$MSCI (-0,25%)
$ENPH (+0,07%)
$BKNG (-0,31%)
$LOGN (+1,24%)
$V (-1,26%)
$MDLZ (-0,5%)
$PYPL (-1,9%)
$000660
$MBG (-0,62%)
$BAS (-1,11%)
$UBSG (+0,67%)
$SAN (+0,28%)
$CVS (+0,85%)
$OTLY (-1,91%)
$GSK (+0,48%)
$ETSY (+2,07%)
$CAT (-0,58%)
$KHC (+1,09%)
$ADYEN (-0,82%)
$ADS (-2,76%)
$AIR (+1,41%)
$SBUX (-1,66%)
$CMG (-0,83%)
$META (-0,78%)
$KLAC (+0,81%)
$MELI (+0,99%)
$WOLF (+3,15%)
$GOOGL (-2,08%)
$EQIX (+0,16%)
$MSFT (+1,5%)
$CVNA (+11,63%)
$EBAY (+1,31%)
$005930
$6752 (-0,61%)
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$STLAM (-1,39%)
$SPGI (-0,79%)
$MA (-0,42%)
$PUM (-5,37%)
$AIXA (-3,48%)
$FSLR (-0,8%)
$AAPL (-0,67%)
$REDDIT (-0%)
$AMZN (-1,16%)
$NET (+2,72%)
$MSTR (+3,28%)
$GDDY (-0,9%)
$TWLO (+2,24%)
$COIN (+1,77%)
$066570
$CL (-2,2%)
$ABBV (-1,54%)
$XOM (-0,67%)

At it-sa, Samsung $005930, Nexus $NEXUS (-0,01%) and Deutsche Telekom $DTE (-1,65%) presented a joint solution with which the smartphone could replace the smart card for access and identity checks in companies and public authorities.

Samsung has been offering security functions for its mobile devices under the brand name Knox for many years. Samsung Knox Native is the security-hardened foundation of all enterprise functions on Samsung devices - a combination of hardware, firmware and OS layers designed to guarantee device integrity, data protection and enterprise management.

Together with Deutsche Telekom Security and PKI specialist Nexus, Samsung has now presented a new mobile access solution based on this foundation at it-sa. It is designed to "turn the smartphone into a secure digital ID card for access and identity checks" - or in other words, it could replace the smart card in many cases.

The starting point for this was the need in public authorities, which often work with a smart card as an authentication method - even when accessing computers or company resources. The new offer brings the smartcard virtually into the smartphone and also allows the functions known from the smartcard (such as additional protection via a PIN) to be mapped.

"The more mobile devices are used for business-critical tasks, the stronger the protective measures that authorities and companies should take to ensure the security of these devices," says Tuncay Sandikci, Director MX B2B at Samsung.

Samsung Knox Native contributes to "keeping digital identities protected and reliable on the smartphone."

The joint development with Nexus and Deutsche Telekom Security has struck a good balance between security and usability, Sandikci emphasized to ChannelPartner at it-sa 2025. The offering is currently being tested with some partners in proof-of-concepts. The market launch will then take place gradually in the first half of 2026.

The partners primarily want to score points in the government business. However, there is no reason why it should not also be sold to corporate customers with high security requirements - or simply those who want to consolidate several authentication methods into one. After all, the providers believe that there is nothing to stop it being used for billing in the canteen, for example, or together with concepts for follow-me printing.

Samsung and Telekom are relying on their proven channels for distribution. This means that Telekom business partners will be able to sell the offer. However, participants in the Samsung Business Partner Program will also have access to it. "Sandikci intends to make it available both to partners who market the Knox Suite for lifecycle management and to those who manage devices for customers as Knox MSPs.

I've just read an article in Die Welt about $005930 I'll just take note of it for now, but will gladly leave it to the community for discussion.

"Then the bubble bursts" - the delicate consequences of the Samsung discovery

A new AI model from Samsung requires 10,000 times less power than current competitor series such as GPT or Gemini. This discovery, which has now been published, jeopardizes the hundreds of billions invested by Nvidia, Microsoft Google & Co and could prove to be a gigantic AI trap.

Wild deals in the AI sector have dominated the stock market news in recent weeks: Nvidia sold supercomputers worth 100 billion dollars to ChatGPT startup OpenAI in early September, gets shares in OpenAI in return. AMD concluded a similar shares-for-chips deal at the beginning of October, and its share price promptly shot up too. Whoever announces the largest data center supercomputer deal wins.

The stock market rewards AI companies for investing hundreds of billions of dollars in capital goods with a finite expiry date. But what if the investments in supercomputers were not necessary at all - if the same artificial intelligence could be developed with much less computing power?

This is the question posed by Alexia Jolicoeur-Martineau, Senior Researcher for Artificial Intelligence at Samsung's Advanced Institute of Technology in Montreal, Canada. This week, under the heading "Less is more", she published a self-developed artificial intelligence that uses just seven million parameters and is therefore ten thousand times smaller than the competing models from OpenAI, Google and other competitors. Nevertheless, according to its inventors, this mini AI outperforms state-of-the-art language models, including Google's current Gemini 2.5 or OpenAI's o3-mini, in some of the most difficult reasoning benchmarks in AI research.

The Samsung model breaks new ground - it first develops an approximate solution for a logic task, then works in repetitive loops to optimize the solution - and requires significantly less computing power than the competition. Samsung has published the program as open source software, and AI researchers from the competition can see for themselves that it works.

"The idea that you have to rely on massive base models trained by large companies for millions of dollars to solve difficult tasks is a trap," wrote Jolicoeur-Martineau on the social network X. "Currently, there is too much focus on using large language models instead of developing and expanding new directions

Whether the Samsung approach actually represents a revolution in the research of current thought models and whether it will stand up outside a relatively narrow circle of benchmark tests has not yet been tested by independent experts.

However, this does not change the fact that researcher Jolicoeur-Martineau is challenging the current AI boom with a fundamental question: What if a technological breakthrough in AI software were to suddenly devalue the billions invested in hardware?

What if the accumulation of more and more power-hungry AI chips is actually a mistake, if it is not the large LLM models but combinations of much smaller, specialized models that win the race for general artificial intelligence? Then the billion-dollar data centers full of Nvidia chips would be worth significantly less in one fell swoop - and the most important companies in the AI boom might have to be revalued.

The performance of the OpenAI model GPT 5 published a few weeks ago already shows that the marginal benefit of the training computing time used is currently decreasing significantly: Although the large language models are getting better and better, the time of big leaps in performance by bluntly using more and more computing power is over for the time being.

The next big advance is missing. If this really is based on the motto "less is more", then the billions planned to be invested in the coming years would be called into question and the data centers that have been built so far could be written off much faster than their builders had planned and hoped.

Unlike previous capital-intensive technical revolutions, unlike the fiber optic boom of the early 2000s or railroad construction from 1840 onwards, the investments made are only of a fleeting nature. Fiber optics in the ground remain valuable. Data centers without supercomputers, however, are little more than well-cooled industrial halls with very large power connections.

However, the supercomputers themselves, which account for around 60 percent of construction costs, have a half-life of just three years and are currently replaced after five to six years, as their high power consumption makes continued operation unprofitable. They have to recoup their construction costs within a very short time before they become worthless. The "Summit" supercomputer used by the US Department of Energy, for example, was the fastest computer in the world when it was commissioned in June 2018 thanks to its Nvidia chips. It was only operated until November 2024, after which it became obsolete

With their development, the Samsung researchers are not only questioning the current large models of the competition. They are indirectly questioning the entire current AI boom on Wall Street, which is primarily based on chip deals and the bartering of supercomputers for computing time. If the technology continues to advance as fast as it has so far, many investors, infrastructure companies and data center operators could be left with billions of dollars in investment ruins within a short space of time.

"In order to refinance the announced investments, ten new AI companies of the size and with the turnover of Google would have to grow up within a short period of time. I think that's unrealistic," says Damian Borth, AI researcher at the University of St. Gallen. Part of the basic work on small models, which the Samsung researchers are now building on, was carried out at his institute.

Borth has been observing for several months that "the neural scaling laws are becoming saturated" - in other words, that the rule that more and more computing power always results in more intelligent models is no longer valid.

"Light weight models, i.e. AI models that require significantly fewer parameters, are currently the most important trend in the industry," explains Borth. The trend was partly born out of technical requirements - models should run on smartphones alone - and partly out of necessity: Only relatively few researchers have access to enough computing time on supercomputers to train large models. This current research direction is now determining progress towards general artificial intelligence, the holy grail of AI research.

Borth therefore sees a discrepancy between market expectations of ever-increasing expenditure on AI infrastructure and current research: "The question is: do we even need such large models, so many parameters, to solve the majority of AI tasks? If not, then we don't need so many supercomputers."

However, Borth believes that as long as the big AI companies continue to uphold the vision of general artificial intelligence from supercomputers, which is set to arrive in the near future, the boom in data centers will continue to be financed. "This is a matter of national security alone - the US cannot afford to lose this race." But the moment faith in the supercomputer AGI wavers is also the moment when AI stocks on the stock market have to be harshly revalued. "Then the bubble bursts," says Borth. The AI model from Montreal could be the first pinprick in the bubble, with more likely to follow.

$HY9H (+5,29%) . $SMSD (+0,26%)
$005930
$006400

CALIFORNIA, USA (IT-Times) - Samsung Electronics, SK hynix and OpenAI announce new strategic partnerships as part of OpenAI's Stargate initiative.

The goal of the strategic collaboration is to expand the infrastructure critical to AI development globally and in South Korea.

The announcement was made during a meeting between OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and South Korean President Lee Jae Myung in Seoul, as well as top executives from Samsung and SK hynix.

The partnerships will focus on increasing the supply of advanced memory chips needed for next-generation AI and expanding data center capacity in Korea.

This positions Samsung and SK hynix as key players in the global AI infrastructure and supports Korea's ambition to become one of the top three AI nations in the world, a statement said.

Under the agreement, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix plan to increase production of advanced memory chips, according to a statement issued on October 1, 2025.

The goal is to produce 900,000 DRAM wafer starts per month with accelerated capacity expansion, which is critical to delivering OpenAI's advanced AI models.

OpenAI also signed a series of agreements today to explore the development of next-generation AI data centers in Korea.

These include a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT), specifically to explore opportunities to build AI data centers outside of the Seoul metropolitan area.

The agreements signed today also include a separate partnership with SK Telecom to explore the construction of an AI data center in Korea and an agreement with Samsung C&T, Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung SDS to explore opportunities for additional data center capacity in the country.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix will also deploy ChatGPT Enterprise and API capabilities across their organizations to improve workflows and support new forms of innovation.

https://www.it-times.de/news/die-ki-chip-superallianz-samsung-sk-hynix-und-openai-bauen-die-globale-ki-infrastruktur-174002/

Huawei's top AI chip reportedly uses components from TSMC, Samsung and SK Hynix

http://www.aastocks.com/en/stocks/news/aafn-con/NOW.1474641/

$1810 (+0,21%)
$AAPL (-0,67%)
$005930

$1810 (+0,21%)
Xiaomi has launched its new flagship smartphone series on the market.

The company is skipping a generation and naming the series Xiaomi 17 instead of Xiaomi 16, as expected.

The standard model, the Xiaomi 17, offers significant hardware improvements.

These include a 1G+6P hybrid lens for the rear main camera and a front camera that has been upgraded from 32 MP to 50 MP.

The battery capacity has been significantly increased from 5,400 mAh to 7,000 mAh, with the proportion of silicon anode increasing from 10% to 16%. The display has also been optimized with improved red brightness.

The Xiaomi 17 Pro also has a second display on the back.

This enables the customization of content, serves as a viewfinder for self-portraits and can transform the smartphone into a retro handheld game console in combination with a special case from Xiaomi.

The rear main camera integrates LOFIC HDR technology, which enables improved detail capture in different lighting conditions.

As a new addition to the product line, Xiaomi introduced the 17 Pro Max model. In addition to the features of the Pro model, it offers an improved OLED display with a new RGB arrangement, a larger sensor for the telephoto zoom camera and an even larger battery with 7,500 mAh.

The entry-level price for the Xiaomi 17 is 4,499 yuan, which is the same as the launch price of the Xiaomi 15.

The 17 Pro starts at 4,999 yuan, which is 300 to 500 yuan below the launch price of the Xiaomi 15 Pro, but similar to its current reduced price.

The new 17 Pro Max is available from 5,999 yuan.

With the introduction of the premium Pro Max model, the average selling price (ASP) of the 17 series is around 4% higher than last year's series.

So 1.5 weeks have now passed. The first gimmicks are over and my Watchlist Pie has returned a total of 4.5% in one week. This has now been sold and I have built up a pie to save for the next 8-10 years. I'm starting with 50€ a week until I've completed the broker's test phase. After that I'll ramp it up to about 1k per month.

There are still a few stocks missing, but the big ones will be scaled down a bit. Among others $IREN (+3,47%) ....

What do you think of the selection?

$NVDA (+3,54%)
$GOOGL (-2,08%)
$MSFT (+1,5%)
$AVGO (+3,05%)
$005930
$AMD (+2,87%)
$TSLA (-3,28%)
$IBM (+0,92%)
$RKLB (+4,98%)
$NU (-0,17%)
$SMCI (+2,53%)
$HIMS (+0,22%)
$ENR (-0,06%)
$HOOD (+3,74%)
$PLTR (+0,12%)
$CSCO (+1,23%)
$MTX (+1,33%)
$TTD (-1,64%)
$QBTS (+5,12%)
$9866 (+1,84%)
$CRWV (-2,37%)

And what of course should not be missing is $SIKA (-1,66%) These are still weighted at 2% 😉 As a craftsman, I really enjoy using the products myself. The technological progress compared to other products such as StoCretec or others is already enormous, but it would go beyond the scope of this article.

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.

https://www.stern.de/panorama/wissen/humanoider-roboter---wie-reagiert-er-auf-beleidigungen--35996156.html

Thank you for your attention and your support 🙏

🌐 1. value chain of humanoid robots (with hidden champions)

1. research & chip design

$ARM (-1,31%) ARM (UK) - CPU-IP, energy-efficient processors

$SNPS (+0,06%) Synopsys (US) - EDA software, chip design

$CDNS (-0,09%) Cadence (US) - EDA & Simulation

$PTC PTC (US) - Engineering Software, CAD/PLM

$DSY (-1,2%) Dassault Systèmes (FR) - 3D Design & Digital Twin

$SIE (+0%) Siemens (DE) - Industrial Software & Lifecycle Mgmt

$ADBE (-1,95%) Adobe (US) - Design, AR/UX

ANSYS (US) - multiphysical simulation - acquisition by Synopsis

Altair (US) - CAE, simulation, digital twin - acquisition by Siemens

$HXGBY (-0,99%)
Hexagon (SE) - Metrology & Simulation

$AWE (-0,1%) 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 (+1,63%) ASML (NL) - Lithography (EUV)

$AMAT (-0,13%) Applied Materials (US) - Semiconductor equipment

$8035 (-0,76%) Tokyo Electron (JP) - wafer fabrication

$KEYS (-0,23%) Keysight Technologies (US) - Metrology

$6857 (-1,68%) Advantest (JP) - Chip test systems

$TER (+1,62%) Teradyne (US) - test systems + cobots

$6954 (-2,07%) Fanuc (JP) - Industrial robots, CNC

$CAT (-0,58%) 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 (+2,84%) Jabil (US) - contract manufacturing (EMS/ODM)

$KIT (+1,62%) Kitron (NO) - European EMS/ODM manufacturer

$AIXA (-3,48%) Aixtron (DE) - deposition equipment for compound semiconductors

$LRCX (+2,09%)
Lam Research (US) - Etch/deposition systems

$MKSI (+0,71%)
MKS Instruments (US) - Plasma/vacuum technology

$ASM (+6,91%)
ASM International (NL) - Deposition systems

1.ASML, 2.Keysight Technologies, 3.Fanuc are my top 3 in this sector

3. chip manufacturing (foundries)

$TSM (+3,46%) TSMC (TW) - leading foundry

$SMSN Samsung Electronics (KR) - foundry + memory

$GFS (+2,22%) GlobalFoundries (US) - specialty chips

$INTC (-2,07%)
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 (+3,54%) Nvidia (US) - GPUs, AI chips

$INTC (-2,07%) Intel (US) - CPUs, FPGAs

$AMD (+2,87%) AMD (US) - CPUs, GPUs

$MRVL (-8,25%) Marvell (US) - Network Chips

$MU (+5,11%) Micron (US) - Memory

$DELL (+1,56%) 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 (-1,64%) Sony (JP) - image sensors

$6861 (-0,78%) Keyence (JP) - Industrial sensors

$STM (+0%) STMicroelectronics (FR/IT) - Sensors, MCUs

$TDY Teledyne (US) - optical/infrared sensors

$CGNX (+0,47%) Cognex (US) - Machine Vision

$HON (+0,11%) Honeywell (US) - sensor technology, security

ANYbotics (CH) - autonomous sensor fusion - not a listed company

$AMBA (+4,05%) Ambarella (US) - video & computer vision SoCs for real-time image recognition

$OUST
Velodyne Lidar (US) - Lidar sensors - acquisition by Ouster

$AMS (-0,69%)
OSRAM (AT/DE) - optical sensors

1.Teledyne, 2.Keyence, 3.Ouster are my top 3 in this sector

6. actuators & power electronics ("muscles")

$IFX (+0,19%) Infineon (DE) - Power Electronics

$ON (+2,55%) onsemi (US) - Power & Sensors

$TXN (-0,74%) Texas Instruments (US) - Mixed-Signal Chips

$ADI (-0,43%) Analog Devices (US) - Signal Processing

$PH Parker-Hannifin (US) - Hydraulics/Pneumatics

$MP (-1,87%) MP Materials (US) - Magnets

$APH (+0,45%) Amphenol (US) - Connectors

$6481 (+0%) THK (JP) - Linear guides & actuators

$6324 (-4,09%)
Harmonic Drive (JP) - Precision gears & servo drives for robotics

$6594 (-0,44%)
Nidec (JP) - Electric motors

$6506 (-0,38%)
Yaskawa (JP) - Drives & Robotics

$SU (+0,65%)
Schneider Electric (FR) - Energy & control solutions

$ZIL2 (+0,75%)
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 (+0,2%) Qualcomm (US) - mobile communications, edge AI

$ANET (+0,73%) Arista Networks (US) - Networks

$CSCO (+1,23%) Cisco (US) - Networks, Security

$EQIX (+0,16%) 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 (+0,77%)
Ericsson (SE) - 5G/IoT infrastructure

$NOKIA (+0,04%)
Nokia (FI) - 5G/6G for industry

$HPE (+2,44%)
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 (+3,32%) CATL (CN) - Batteries

$6752 (-0,61%) Panasonic (JP) - Batteries

$373220 LG Energy (KR) - Batteries

$ALB (-0,19%) Albemarle (US) - Lithium

$LYC (-4,07%) Lynas (AU) - Rare earths

$UMICY (-0,52%) Umicore (BE) - recycling

WiTricity (US) - inductive charging - not a listed company

$ABBN (+0,89%) 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

$KULR (-1,18%)
KULR Technology (US) - Thermal management & battery safety for mobile systems

1.Albemarle, 2.CATL, 3.Panasonic are my top 3 in this sector

9. cloud & infrastructure

$AMZN (-1,16%) Amazon AWS (US) - Cloud, AI

$MSFT (+1,5%) Microsoft Azure (US) - Cloud, AI

$GOOG (-2,14%) Alphabet Google Cloud (US) - Cloud, ML

$VRT
Vertiv Holdings (US) - Data center infrastructure (UPS, cooling, edge)

$ORCL (+1,55%)
Oracle Cloud (US) - ERP + Cloud

$IBM (+0,92%)
IBM Cloud (US) - Hybrid cloud + AI

$OVH (-5,79%)
OVHcloud (FR) - European cloud

1.Alphabet, 2.Microsoft, 3.Oracle are my top 3 in this sector

10. software & data platforms

$PLTR (+0,12%) Palantir (US) - Data integration

$DDOG (+1,56%) Datadog (US) - Monitoring

$SNOW (-1,56%) Snowflake (US) - Data Cloud

$ORCL (+1,55%) Oracle (US) - Databases, ERP

$SAP (-1,6%) SAP (DE) - ERP systems

$SPGI (-0,79%) S&P Global (US) - financial/market data

ROS2 Foundation - robotics middleware - not listed on the stock exchange

$NVDA (+3,54%) NVIDIA Isaac (US) - robotics development - part of Nvidia

$INOD (-0,81%) Innodata (US) - data annotation & AI training data

$PATH (+3,43%)
UiPath (RO/US) - Robotic process automation

$AI (+2,15%)
C3.ai (US) - AI platform

$ESTC (+1,21%)
(NL/US) - Search & data analysis

1.S&P Global, 2.Palantir, 3.Datadog are my top 3 in this sector

11. end applications / robots

$ABBN (+0,89%) ABB (CH/SE) - Industrial Robots

$6954 (-2,07%) Fanuc (JP) - Industrial robots

$TSLA (-3,28%) Tesla Optimus (US) - humanoid robot

$9618 (+0,59%) JD.com (CN) - logistics robot

$AAPL (-0,67%) Apple (US) - Platform & UX

$700 (-0,29%) Tencent (CN) - Platform & AI

$9988 (-0,14%) Alibaba (CN) - logistics & platform

PAL Robotics (ES) - humanoid robots - not a listed company

Neura Robotics (DE) - cognitive humanoid robots - not a listed company

$TER (+1,62%) Universal Robots (DK) - cobots - belongs to the Teradyne Corporation

Engineered Arts (UK) - humanoid robots - not a listed company

$ISRG (-1,51%) Intuitive Surgical (US) - surgical robotics

$GMED (-2,24%)
Globus Medical (US) - surgical robotics (ExcelsiusGPS platform)

$7012 (+2,29%) Kawasaki Heavy Industries (JP) - industrial robots, automation

$CPNG (+0,89%) Coupang (KR) - Logistics end user

$IRBT (-9,18%)
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 (-4,67%)
Iluka Resources (AU) - Rare earths

$ARR (+0,23%)
American Rare Earths (US/AU) - New supply chains

my number 1 in the sector is Albemarle

manufacturing technology

ASML - Applied Materials - Tokyo Electron

$LRCX (+2,09%)
Lam Research (US) - Plasma/etching processes

$ASM (+6,91%)
ASM International (NL) - ALD equipment

$MKSI (+0,71%)
MKS Instruments (US) - Plasma/vacuum technology

my number 1 in the sector is ASML

Quality assurance

Keysight - Advantest - Teradyne

$EMR (-1,13%)
National Instruments (US) - Measurement technology - from Emerson Electric adopted

$300567
ATE Test Systems (CN) - test systems

$FORM (+1,52%)
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 (+0%)
THK (JP) - Linear guides

my number 1 in the sector is Parker-Hannifin

Sensors/Imaging

$TDY Teledyne

$BSL (-2,35%) 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 (-1,36%)
Hitachi Metals (JP) - Magnetic materials

VacuumSchmelze (DE) - Magnetic materials - not a listed company

$4063 (-0,92%)
Shin-Etsu Chemical (JP) - Specialty materials

my number 1 in the sector is MP Materials

Chip Design & Simulation

Synopsys - Cadence - ARM

$SIE (+0%)
Siemens EDA (DE/US)-Mentor Graphics-strategic business unit of Siemens AG

Imagination Tech (UK) - GPU-IP - not a listed company

$CEVA (-3,54%)
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 (-0,99%)
Hexagon (SE) - Metrology

$SNPS (+0,06%)
ANSYS (US) - Simulation - takeover by Synopsys

my number 1 in the sector is Siemens

Networks & Data Centers

Arista - Cisco - Equinix

$HPE (+2,44%)
Juniper (US) - Networks - Acquisition of HPE

$DTE (-1,65%)
T-Systems (DE) - Industry cloud

$OVH (-5,79%)
OVHcloud (FR) - European cloud

my number 1 in the sector is Arista

Cloud infrastructure

AWS - Azure - Google Cloud

$ORCL (+1,55%)
Oracle Cloud (US) - ERP & databases

$IBM (+0,92%)
IBM Cloud (US) - Hybrid Cloud

$9988 (-0,14%)
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 (-1,85%)
Moody's (US) - Ratings

$MSCI (-0,25%)
MSCI (US) - Indices

$MORN
Morningstar (US) - Investment Research

my number 1 in the sector is S&P Global

Creative/Experience Infra

Adobe

$ADSK (-1,89%)
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 (-0,78%)
Meta (US) - AR/VR, Social Robotics

ByteDance (CN) - AI & platforms - not a listed company

$9888 (+3,92%)
Baidu (CN) - AI & Cloud

my number 1 in the sector is Tencent

Infrastructure/Edge

Dell

$HPE (+2,44%)
HPE (US) - Edge Computing

$SMCI (+2,53%)
Supermicro (US) - AI servers

$6702 (-0,54%)
Fujitsu (JP) - Edge & HPC

my number 1 in the sector is Dell

storage solutions

Micron

$HY9H (+5,29%)
SK Hynix (KR) - Memory

$285A (+4,76%)
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 (+1,29%) Goldman Sachs (US) - investment bank; ECM/DCM, M&A, growth financing

$MS Morgan Stanley (US) - investment bank; tech banking, capital markets

$BLK (-0,95%) BlackRock (US) - asset manager; capital allocation, ETFs/index funds

$9984 (-4,51%) 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 Softbank

Maintenance & Service

$SIE (+0%) Siemens (DE) - Industrial Service, Lifecycle & Retrofit

$ABBN (+0,89%) ABB (CH/SE) - Robotics Service, Spare Parts, Field Support

$GEHC (-2,69%) 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 (-2,07%) 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 (+3%) WPP (UK) - global advertising group; branding/communications

$OMC Omnicom (US) - marketing/PR network

$PUB (+1,33%) Publicis (FR) - communications/advertising group

$META (-0,78%) Meta (US) - Digital Ads (Facebook/Instagram)

$GOOG (-2,14%) Google Ads (US) - search & display advertising

TikTok / ByteDance (CN) - social ads & distribution - not a listed company

$AAPL (-0,67%) Apple (US) - Branding/UX; Acceptance & Platform Marketing

$WPP (+3%)
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 (+3,54%) Nvidia (US) - AI GPUs & Isaac platform, foundation for robotic AI

$2330 TSMC (TW) - world's most important foundry, produces the AI chips

$ASML (+1,63%) ASML (NL) - EUV lithography, indispensable for chip production

$005930 Samsung Electronics (KR) - memory, logic, foundry

$HY9H (+5,29%) SK Hynix (KR) - DRAM & NAND memory for AI

$MU (+5,11%) 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 (-0,78%) Keyence (JP) - Industrial sensors & vision systems

$CGNX (+0,47%) Cognex (US) - Machine Vision, precise image processing

my number 1 in the sector is Keyence

Actuators & motion (muscles of robots)

$IFX (+0,19%) Infineon (DE) - power electronics, motor control

$6594 (-0,44%) Nidec (JP) - World market leader for electric motors

$PH Parker-Hannifin (US) - hydraulics/pneumatics, motion technology

$6481 (+0%) THK (JP) - Linear guides & actuators

my number 1 in the sector is Parker-Hannifin

Communication, cloud & infrastructure (nerves & data flow)

$QCOM (+0,2%) Qualcomm (US) - Mobile & Edge Chips

$AMZN (-1,16%) Amazon AWS (US) - Cloud & AI infrastructure

$MSFT (+1,5%) Microsoft Azure (US) - Cloud, AI services

$CSCO (+1,23%) 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 (-3,28%) Tesla (US) - humanoid robot Optimus

$ABBN (+0,89%) ABB (CH/SE) - Robotics & Automation

$6954 (-2,07%) Fanuc (JP) - industrial robots & CNC systems

$7012 (+2,29%) 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 (+1,63%)
ASML (NL)

World market leader in EUV lithography - no modern chips for AI & robotics without ASML.

$IFX (+0,19%) Infineon (DE)

Leading in power electronics & motor control - crucial for actuators of humanoid robots.

$STM (+0%)
STMicroelectronics (FR/IT)

Sensors, microcontrollers & power chips - the basis for control & perception.

$SAP (-1,6%)
SAP (DE)

ERP & data platforms, important for integrating humanoid robots into industrial processes.

$SIE (+0%)
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.

$HY9H (+5,29%)
SK Hynix (KR) - Memory

$SONY
Sony (Japan)

Market leader in CMOS image sensors, essential for robotic vision & perception.

$6861 (-0,78%)
Keyence (Japan)

Sensor technology & machine vision for industrial automation, widely used in robotics.

$6954 (-2,07%)
Fanuc (Japan)

Industrial robots & CNC systems, one of the most important manufacturers of robotics hardware worldwide.

$6506 (-0,38%)
Yaskawa Electric (Japan)

Drives, motion control & robot arms - relevant for humanoid motion control.

$6594 (-0,44%)
Nidec (Japan)

World market leader for electric motors (from mini motors to high-performance drives).

$7012 (+2,29%)
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (JP) - Industrial robots

$9618 (+0,59%)
JD.com (China)

Driver for robotics in e-commerce & logistics, invests in humanoid robotics applications

The hype is all about humanoid robots, but the constant winners are in the background.

I have divided the analysis into two perspectives. 1. the complete value chain of humanoid robots, which shows all the players from the chip to the finished robot, and 2. the blade manufacturers in the background, who always earn money as enablers, regardless of which manufacturer wins the race.

ASML, Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron dominate in manufacturing technology. Quality assurance comes from Keysight, Advantest and Teradyne. Chip design is supported by Synopsys, Cadence and ARM. Data streams are secured by Arista Networks, Cisco and Equinix. The computing basis is created in the cloud by Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet. Albemarle, Lynas and Umicore play a central role in raw materials and battery materials. These companies monetize their customers' investment waves, have high barriers to entry, service revenues and pricing power, but remain cyclical with risks from export rules, capex cuts and currency movements.

🌐 Value chain of humanoid robots Sector overview

1. research & chip design (IP / EDA)

$ARM (-1,31%)
ARM Holdings (ARM, UK/USA) - CPU architectures

$SNPS (+0,06%)
Synopsys (SNPS, USA) - Chip design software

$CDNS (-0,09%)
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS, USA) - EDA & Simulation

2. manufacturing technology & equipment

$ASML (+1,63%)
ASML (ASML, NL) - EUV lithography, key monopoly

$AMAT (-0,13%)
Applied Materials (AMAT, USA) - Process equipment

$8035 (-0,76%)
Tokyo Electron (8035.T, JP) - Wafer equipment

$KEYS (-0,23%)
Keysight Technologies (KEYS, USA) - Test & RF measurement technology

$6857 (-1,68%)
Advantest (6857.T, JP) - Semiconductor test systems

$TER (+1,62%)
Teradyne (TER, USA) - Test systems + robotics (Universal Robots)

3. chip production (Foundries)

$TSM (+3,46%)
TSMC (TSM, TW) - Largest contract manufacturer

$005930
Samsung Electronics (005930.KQ, KR) - Memory + Foundry

$GFS (+2,22%)
GlobalFoundries (GFS, USA) - Specialized production

4. computing & control unit ("brain")

$NVDA (+3,54%)
Nvidia (NVDA, USA) - GPUs, AI accelerators

$INTC (-2,07%)
Intel (INTC, USA) - CPUs, FPGAs

$AMD (+2,87%)
AMD (AMD, USA) - CPUs/GPUs

$MRVL (-8,25%)
Marvell Technology (MRVL, USA) - Network/data center chips

5. sensors ("senses")

$6758 (-1,64%)
Sony (6758.T, JP) - CMOS image sensors

$6861 (-0,78%)
Keyence (6861.T, JP) - Vision systems, sensors

$STM (+0%)
STMicroelectronics (STM, CH/FR) - MEMS sensors

6. actuators & power electronics ("muscles")

$IFX (+0,19%)
Infineon (IFX, DE) - Power semiconductors, SiC

$ON (+2,55%)
N Semiconductor (ON, USA) - SiC/Power Chips

$STM (+0%)
STMicroelectronics (STM, CH/FR) - Motor control & power

$TXN (-0,74%)
Texas Instruments (TXN, USA) - Motor control, power ICs

$ADI (-0,43%)
Analog Devices (ADI, USA) - Energy & BMS chips

7. communication & networking ("nerves")

$QCOM (+0,2%)
Qualcomm (QCOM, USA) - 5G/SoCs

$AVGO (+3,05%)
Broadcom (AVGO, USA) - Network & radio chips

$SWKS (-0,48%)
Skyworks Solutions (SWKS, USA) - RF components

8. energy supply

$300750
CATL (300750.SZ, CN) - Batteries

$6752 (-0,61%)
Panasonic (6752.T, JP) - Batteries for automotive/robotics

$373220
LG Energy Solution (373220.KQ, KR) - Batteries

9. cloud & infrastructure

$AMZN (-1,16%)
Amazon (AMZN, USA) - AWS

$MSFT (+1,5%)
Microsoft (MSFT, USA) - Azure

$GOOG (-2,14%)
Alphabet (GOOGL, USA) - Google Cloud

$EQIX (+0,16%)
Equinix (EQIX, USA) - Data center operator

$ANET (+0,73%)
Arista Networks (ANET, USA) - Network infrastructure

$CSCO (+1,23%)
Cisco Systems (CSCO, USA) - Edge & Data Center Networks

10. software & data platforms

$PLTR (+0,12%)
Palantir (PLTR, USA) - Data integration, decision software

$DDOG (+1,56%)
Datadog (DDOG, USA) - Cloud monitoring / observability

$SNOW (-1,56%)
Snowflake (SNOW, USA) - Cloud-native data platform

$ORCL (+1,55%)
Oracle (ORCL, USA) - Databases, ERP

$SAP (-1,6%)
SAP (SAP, DE) - ERP/cloud systems

$PATH (+3,43%)
UiPath (PATH, USA) - Automation software (RPA)

$AI (+2,15%)
C3.ai (AI, USA) - Enterprise AI platform

11. end applications / robots

$ABB
ABB (ABB, CH) - Industrial robots

$6954 (-2,07%)
Fanuc (6954.T, JP) - Industrial robots, CNC

$TSLA (-3,28%)
Tesla (TSLA, USA) - Optimus" humanoid robot

$9618 (+0,59%)
JD.com (JD, CN) - E-commerce & automated logistics

🛠️ Shovel manufacturer for humanoid robots

🔹 Hardtech (physical "shovels")

These companies provide the material basis: manufacturing machines, raw materials, semiconductor base.

Semiconductor Equipment & Manufacturing

$ASML (+1,63%)
ASML (ASML, NL) - EUV lithography (monopoly).

$AMAT (-0,13%)
Applied Materials (AMAT, USA) - Wafer equipment.

$8035 (-0,76%)
Tokyo Electron (8035.T, JP) - Process equipment.

Test systems (hardware-side)

$6857 (-1,68%)
Advantest (6857.T, JP) - Semiconductor test.

$TER (+1,62%)
Teradyne (TER, USA) - Test systems + industrial robots.

Materials & raw materials

$ALB (-0,19%)
Albemarle (ALB, USA) - Lithium (batteries).

$LYC (-4,07%)
Lynas Rare Earths (LYC.AX, AUS) - Rare earths for magnets.

$UMICY (-0,52%)
Umicore (UMI.BR, BE) - Cathode materials, recycling.

🔹 Soft/infra (digital "shovels")

These companies supply the infrastructure & toolswithout which development, training and operation would be impossible.

Design Software & IP

$SNPS (+0,06%)
Synopsys (SNPS, USA) - EDA software.

$CDNS (-0,09%)
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS, USA) - Chip design & simulation.

$ARM (-1,31%)
ARM Holdings (ARM, UK/USA) - CPU architectures (license model).

Test & Measurement (software/signal level)

$KEYS (-0,23%)
Keysight Technologies (KEYS, USA) - Electronics & RF test systems.

Network & data center backbone

$ANET (+0,73%)
Arista Networks (ANET, USA) - High-speed networks.

$CSCO (+1,23%)
Cisco Systems (CSCO, USA) - Data center/edge networks.

$EQIX (+0,16%)
Equinix (EQIX, USA) - Data centers (colocation).

Cloud infrastructure

$AMZN (-1,16%)
Amazon (AMZN, USA) - AWS (cloud, AI training).

$MSFT (+1,5%)
Microsoft (MSFT, USA) - Azure.

$GOOG (-2,14%)
Alphabet (GOOGL, USA) - Google Cloud.

Takeaway: Investing in the infrastructure stack allows you to participate in the robotics trend regardless of the subsequent product winner and reduces the individual product risk, but you have to live with cycles. In your opinion, which stage of the chain offers the best risk/return combination and fits into a disciplined portfolio?

Source: Own analysis based on publicly available company information and IR materials of the companies mentioned.

Image material: Techa Tungateja/iStockphoto