Robotics - The New Frontier

[whatstheofficerproblem]

With there being a lot of 'hype' and material advancements in Robots & broader robotics, wondering if any of you have any good ideas to invest in this basket. I'm trying to find a pureplay on robotics in the domestic market and looks like they are almost non existent. Here are what I've come across.

 

Tesla (TSLA) - Not a pureplay, but with them expanding into 'Robots', the current extent of which I do not know, I feel very uncomfortable dipping my toes in the name for just one segment.

 

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) - The only domestic pureplay on robotics I could find. They make great surgical robots, lots of advancements, terrific moat as most of today's doctors are practically trained on their equipment and there is a very high switching cost associated which given the maze the US healthcare system is, I don't think is possible. Solid company, earnings are great and will only get better. Expensive, but worth tracking.

 

Shanghai Baosight (900926) - International play on robotics. I am inclined to call this a pureplay on Robotics. They have an Information solutions business, Smart storage and best of all they manufacture industrial robots the advancements on which have led them to be confident in industrial level humanoid robots. They are literally expanding into Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model in real time. They also dabble in AI, the company is cheap on a relative basis but has a few structural problems. Might be worth buying, but not until I have a full picture, so closely monitoring this.

 

What are your thoughts on the sector and some of the names you might be interested for the robotics basket? 

[Saluki]

10 hours ago, whatstheofficerproblem said:

With there being a lot of 'hype' and material advancements in Robots & broader robotics, wondering if any of you have any good ideas to invest in this basket. I'm trying to find a pureplay on robotics in the domestic market and looks like they are almost non existent. Here are what I've come across.

 

Tesla (TSLA) - Not a pureplay, but with them expanding into 'Robots', the current extent of which I do not know, I feel very uncomfortable dipping my toes in the name for just one segment.

 

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) - The only domestic pureplay on robotics I could find. They make great surgical robots, lots of advancements, terrific moat as most of today's doctors are practically trained on their equipment and there is a very high switching cost associated which given the maze the US healthcare system is, I don't think is possible. Solid company, earnings are great and will only get better. Expensive, but worth tracking.

 

Shanghai Baosight (900926) - International play on robotics. I am inclined to call this a pureplay on Robotics. They have an Information solutions business, Smart storage and best of all they manufacture industrial robots the advancements on which have led them to be confident in industrial level humanoid robots. They are literally expanding into Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model in real time. They also dabble in AI, the company is cheap on a relative basis but has a few structural problems. Might be worth buying, but not until I have a full picture, so closely monitoring this.

 

What are your thoughts on the sector and some of the names you might be interested for the robotics basket? 

Interesting idea for a theme or basket. I looked at intuitive surgical a long time ago but it looked really expensive. Haven't looked since, but good to put on the investigate list and revisit when I have some time. 

[Spekulatius]

Humanoid robots aren’t really that ideal for most tasks, so they are more a gimmick than a real product. Tesla’s robots are mostly remote controlled vaporware at this point.

 

Fanuc and Yaskawa are large Japanese robot suppliers and both publicly traded. In Europe there is ABB and in the US, Teradyne had a significant robot business.

 

I am not over enthusiast about robot business because the Chinese push hard and likely will be a deflationary force. Its a high priority from the CCP to become leader in robots because they are running out of labor and see this as a critical tech.

[dwy000]

While robotics will undoubtedly be a huge industry the winners will be the companies building custom robots for specific use.  The number of companies that have produced awesomely cool robots that have never gone anywhere is a long list.  Boston Dynamics being the poster child (and Tesla's humanoid will be.the same).  You never want to invest in a solution looking for a problem. You want the company that solves a massive problem for their customers using robots. And that usually means custom, problem-specific robotics. 

[whatstheofficerproblem]

I agree with Spek on the Humanoid robots aspect. I truly believe they are, for the time being a gimmick, nothing more or less. Which is why I'm interested in ISRG & Baosight, they are manufacturing robots that solve problems, be it in surgeries or supply chain. That said dwy, I'm just looking to create a basket that will be a small % of the portfolio, because why not? I think we will see positive developments on the robotics side given the amount of compute that is in demand right now, especially from companies that already make robots.

 

As for the rest, like another user on the forum stated (maybe Spek himself I think), we will see robotics become the new start-up fantasy land after the AI hype dies down.

Edited December 28, 2024 by whatstheofficerproblem