Ever wondered which robot companies are actually on the fast track to success? Andrew Kang, who literally runs a Nasdaq-listed fund dedicated to owning robot companies before they go public, has a surprisingly short list for American humanoid robot startups: Tesla Optimus, Figure AI, and Apptronik. Out of 112 companies in the US humanoid space, only these three truly stand out to him. And the reason for such a concise selection isn’t about capital – money is apparently plentiful. Instead, it boils down to something far more precious: specialized expertise.
Kang points out that the real bottleneck isn’t funding, but the scarcity of a few hundred truly competent people in incredibly specific fields like robot learning, computer vision, hand engineering, and battery engineering. He notes that Figure AI is currently showing off some seriously impressive AI chops, like their Figure 03 robots sorting a quarter-million packages over 200 hours without a major glitch. However, Kang remains bullish on Tesla Optimus in the long run, betting on Elon Musk’s track record of getting things done at lightning speed once he fully commits.
So, where is Kang putting his own money? His RoboStrategy fund holds significant positions in Apptronik and Figure, reflecting his confidence. He’s incredibly optimistic about the future, forecasting a market worth tens of trillions of dollars, with millions of humanoid units potentially deployed by 2028-2029, and these robots commonly found in homes by 2030. The biggest hurdle, surprisingly, isn’t advanced AI or a lack of investment, but simply the monumental task of building out the physical infrastructure and manufacturing enough robots to meet the impending demand.