Home Podcasts The Robot Investor
The Robot Investor

The Robot Investor

The Robot Investor 38 Episodes Oct 6, 2026

The Robot Investor helps everyday investors understand the fast-moving world of robotics and humanoid-robot investing without needing a finance degree. Each week, analyst Elena and investor Theo unpack headlines in a Friday news roundup and take a closer look at one company in twice-weekly deep dives, presenting both the bull case and the bear case. The show covers major players like Tesla's Optimus and Nvidia, as well as supply-chain firms driving the industry, with the goal of cutting through hype to assess what would need to go right or wrong.

Episodes

PTC: Schneider's $22.6B Robot-Design Software Bet | Layer 4 | Oct 06, 2026
PTC: Schneider's $22.6B Robot-Design Software Bet | Layer 4 | Oct 06, 2026 Oct 6, 2026 00:11:03 Schneider Electric just agreed to buy PTC (NASDAQ: PTC) for $205 a share in cash, about $22.6 billion in equity value, a 42.3% premium to the prior close, with closing expected in Q3 2027. Is that a robotics story? In this deep dive, Elena and Theo place PTC on Layer 4 of the robotics value chain: software, simulation and AI platforms. PTC makes the design and product-lifecycle tools (Creo, Windch
Robotics Stocks: 5M Factory Robots, Optimus Snags | Oct 02, 2026
Robotics Stocks: 5M Factory Robots, Optimus Snags | Oct 02, 2026 Oct 2, 2026 00:11:25 The robot industry's annual census is out, and the big money is still in boring robots. The International Federation of Robotics' World Robotics 2026 report counts a record five million industrial robots in factories worldwide, with more than 600,000 installed in 2025. China took 59 percent of installs, and the U.S. passed Japan to become the second-largest market at almost 38,500 units. T
Medtronic (MDT): Hugo Robot vs. da Vinci, Layer 7 | Sep 29, 2026
Medtronic (MDT): Hugo Robot vs. da Vinci, Layer 7 | Sep 29, 2026 Sep 29, 2026 00:15:40 Medtronic (NYSE: MDT) is best known for pacemakers and insulin pumps, but its Hugo surgical robot is the first major challenger to Intuitive's da Vinci in the U.S. in more than twenty years. In this deep dive we place Medtronic in Layer 7 of the robotics stack, medical and surgical robotics, and ask the question casual investors need answered: is this a robotics stock, or a robotics option inside
Cognex Buys RealSense, Atlas Goes To Work | Sep 25, 2026
Cognex Buys RealSense, Atlas Goes To Work | Sep 25, 2026 Sep 25, 2026 00:13:14 The week robotics investing got concrete. On September 22, Cognex (NASDAQ: CGNX) agreed to acquire RealSense — the depth-camera business Intel founded in 2014 and spun out in 2025 — for approximately $500 million in cash, plus a $56.5 million retention program and about $50 million in stock grants. Cognex expects RealSense to generate $80–90 million of revenue in 2026 and sizes robotic perception
Qualcomm (QCOM): Buying The Robot Brain Software
Qualcomm (QCOM): Buying The Robot Brain Software Sep 25, 2026 00:19:32 Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) sits on Layer 2 of the robotics stack — processing and edge compute, the silicon brains inside the machine. On September 23, 2026, Qualcomm agreed to acquire PickNik, the Boulder, Colorado company that stewards MoveIt, the open-source motion-planning framework that a very large share of the world's research and commercial robot arms are built on. Terms were
Skild AI: A $14B Robot Brain Nobody Can Buy Yet
Skild AI: A $14B Robot Brain Nobody Can Buy Yet Sep 22, 2026 00:17:48 Skild AI is a three-year-old Pittsburgh startup building what it calls an "omni-bodied" AI brain — one model meant to run any robot, from humanoids to warehouse arms, without retraining for every new task. It sits in the software and AI-platform layer of the robotics stack, the same "brain, not body" bet the show explored with Dyna Robotics. Ten months after its first commercial deployment, Skild
China Reins In Robot IPOs, Tesla's Optimus Ramps | Sep 18, 2026
China Reins In Robot IPOs, Tesla's Optimus Ramps | Sep 18, 2026 Sep 18, 2026 00:11:33 This week on The Robot Investor, hosts Elena and Theo cover China's securities regulator tightening scrutiny of humanoid robot IPOs after Unitree Robotics' stock cratered 44 percent from its August debut high, wiping out roughly $30 billion in value and putting IPO hopefuls like Deep Robotics and Leju Robot under a higher bar for recurring revenue. UBTech's first home-delivered U1 comp
1X Technologies: SoftBank's $6B Bet On Home Robots
1X Technologies: SoftBank's $6B Bet On Home Robots Sep 18, 2026 00:19:39 A casual-investor deep dive on 1X Technologies, the Norwegian-American humanoid robot maker building NEO, a $20,000 home robot designed to fold laundry, load the dishwasher, and handle chores — a full-stack humanoid, like Figure AI and Tesla's Optimus, but aimed at houses instead of factories. The hook: SoftBank is reportedly in talks for a controlling stake at a $6 billion valuation, the late
Vishay Precision Group (VPG): Layer 3 Sensors and a $320K Humanoid Bet | 15 Sep 26
Vishay Precision Group (VPG): Layer 3 Sensors and a $320K Humanoid Bet | 15 Sep 26 Sep 15, 2026 00:13:50 Vishay Precision Group (NYSE: VPG) makes precision resistors, strain gauges, load cells, and force and torque sensors — the components that let machines, and increasingly robots, measure weight, pressure, and touch. That puts it on Layer 3 of the robotics stack: actuation and precision motion. VPG stock surged more than 260% over the past year on hopes it supplies force and torque sensors to an un
Humanoid Stocks Wobble, Figure's Compute Bet | Sep 11, 2026
Humanoid Stocks Wobble, Figure's Compute Bet | Sep 11, 2026 Sep 13, 2026 00:12:26 This week on The Robot Investor, hosts Elena and Theo break down a rough quarter for Serve Robotics, whose Uber delivery volume fell for the first time in 17 quarters, forcing the company to slash its 2026 revenue guidance from $26 million to as low as $9 million — and send the stock down double digits. AeroVironment lands its first international order for the LOCUST directed-energy counter-drone
Unitree (688836): Humanoid Stock Down 50% From Its Peak | Sep 08, 2026
Unitree (688836): Humanoid Stock Down 50% From Its Peak | Sep 08, 2026 Sep 8, 2026 00:16:15 A casual-investor deep dive on Unitree Robotics (Shanghai STAR Market: 688836), the Hangzhou maker of quadruped and humanoid robots — Layer 10 of our robotics stack, full-stack humanoids and consumer robotics. We first covered Unitree in June as a private, unlisted company. Now it's public, and the ride has been extreme: an August 19, 2026 debut that opened 629% above its IPO price and closed up 4
Oceaneering (OII): Subsea Robots, Half The Profit — Layer 9 Marine Robotics Deep Dive | Sep 03, 2026
Oceaneering (OII): Subsea Robots, Half The Profit — Layer 9 Marine Robotics Deep Dive | Sep 03, 2026 Sep 4, 2026 00:21:50 Oceaneering International (NYSE: OII) runs the largest fleet of work-class underwater robots on Earth — 250 systems, on 82 of the world's 139 contracted floating rigs, a 59% share — and almost nobody calls it a robotics stock. This is our first episode on Layer 9 of the robotics value chain: marine and specialty robotics.Elena and Theo unpack what a remotely operated vehicle actually is and wh

Recommended