00:00Well, Thomas Anderson is the founder of STIQ, a research firm that tracks companies developing humanoid robots around the world.
00:09The sector is really, really early stage. There are some green shoots of companies that are doing better than others.
00:18But still, everything that's going on is kind of pilots and trials for now.
00:25So it's very, very difficult to say. There's loads of media kind of PR on as well with some humanoids doing parkour dances and so on as well.
00:37If they are in the lead, it's difficult to say, essentially.
00:41I think we'll see how it pans out in the next six to 12 months.
00:45In terms of funding, your own research says that around 60 percent of the funding for these humanoid robots is coming from Asia.
00:54Why Asia in particular? And is there a danger, do you think, that Western firms are going to be permanently locked out of the market due to these early funding dynamics?
01:04So that kind of dynamic has shifted a bit as well.
01:07So now we have probably I think it's fairly similar what Asian and U.S. companies are fundraising.
01:16But you get far more value for your money in a place like China, where the supply chain is far cheaper to engage with.
01:26So what is it about the supply chain in China that makes it so much easier and faster for companies to build these robots?
01:33It's just an amazing setup. You have everything there, everything, you know, motor manufacturers, components, suppliers, 3D printers.
01:45Everything is just set up for having a really fast iteration of product iteration there as well.
01:52And you can be quite creative as well.
01:55What the U.S. have perhaps is that they have Nvidia and then a few of the really big fundraisers as well.
02:01But that supply chain in China is just it's unbeatable for now anyway.
02:07So a lot of the U.S. companies to keep up, for example, they need to produce their own components as well,
02:13which is partly why they have to fundraise so much. But it's just an amazing supply chain that exists in China.
02:21Now, of course, the whole idea of humanoid robots seems like something that's straight out of science fiction, doesn't it?
02:27Do you see a time, and if so, when, when these robots will be as common as the smartphone?
02:35It'll be looked at as a revolution on the scale that the smartphone was.
02:42I'm a humanoid cynic, perhaps, but I think there will definitely be a place for humanoids in their current form,
02:50you know, either with the wheelbase or with bipedal, like legs and so on.
02:56But if it's going to be big, that's a bigger question that I can perhaps respond now.
03:02We talk to a lot of end customers who are very keen to try out these robots.
03:09What they are telling us is that it's almost impossible to get a robot that can do anything right now.
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