The AI revolution is still ongoing, but there could be an even bigger change on the horizon.
That bold outlook comes from Jensen Huang, the visionary CEO of NVIDIA, the company whose hardware has become the backbone of the current artificial intelligence boom. Known for his prescient calls on technological shifts, Huang is now pointing towards humanoid robots as the next frontier, suggesting a market potential that could dwarf many existing industries, spurred by advancements from innovators like Elon Musk.
In a recent discussion, Huang highlighted NVIDIA’s deep involvement with some of the most ambitious tech ventures today. “Well, we do a lot of business with Tesla and xAI,” he stated. “Elon, as you know, is just an extraordinary engineer, and I love working with him. We’ve built some amazing computers together, and we’re going to build many more computers together.”
Huang expressed immense enthusiasm for the various groundbreaking projects helmed by Musk. “The work that he’s doing in Grok, his self-driving car, his Optimus – these are all, every single one of them, world-class,” Huang remarked. “Every single one of them is revolutionary. Every single one of them is going to be a gigantic opportunity, and we’re delighted, I’m delighted, to be working with him on that.”
While advancements in AI models like Grok and self-driving technology are already transforming industries, Huang zeroed in on Tesla’s humanoid robot project, Optimus, as a particularly monumental development. “And so, I think the Optimus opportunity is just right around the corner,” he asserted. He then laid out the staggering potential: “It’s very likely that humanoid robots are going to be robots that we can deploy into the world relatively easily. This is the first robot that really has a chance to achieve the high volume and technology scale necessary to advance technology. And so, I think this is likely to be the next multi-trillion dollar industry. I’m very excited for him.”
The Dawn of the Humanoid Era?
Jensen Huang’s prediction of a multi-trillion dollar humanoid robot industry isn’t just wishful thinking; it’s a reflection of converging technological advancements. Humanoid robots, designed to operate in environments built for humans, offer unparalleled versatility. From manufacturing plants and warehouses to retail stores, hospitals, and even homes, robots with human-like form and dexterity could undertake a vast array of tasks.
The current AI boom, particularly in areas like reinforcement learning, computer vision, and natural language understanding, provides the “brains” for these machines. Concurrently, strides in sensor technology, battery life, and more efficient actuators are making the physical hardware increasingly viable. NVIDIA itself is heavily investing in this space, with platforms like Isaac Sim for robotics simulation and the recently announced Project GR00T, a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots, aiming to accelerate their development. The vision is for robots that can learn and adapt to perform a wide range of tasks, much like humans do. And if these humanoid robots can actually perform tasks like humans can, they might reshape the global economy — and the human sense of meaning — in ways that could be impossible to fathom at the moment.