Morgan Stanley expects 8 million humanoids to exist by 2040, names stocks to play the AI theme

Published Mon, Jul 1 20247:26 PM EDT

Tightness in labor markets is boosting the use case of robotics, Morgan Stanley says, predicting a boom in humanoids — or robots in human form. "Advancements in AI are transforming the robotics industry," Morgan Stanley analysts said in a June 26 report called: "Humanoids: Investment Implications of Embodied AI." "Labor shortage and demographic trends increase the commercial relevance and paths of adoption (and economic payback period) across a broad range of industries," they added. The bank forecasts a humanoid population of 40,000 by 2030, 8 million by 2040 and 63 million by 2050. But it's not worried about robots replacing jobs — the analysts say it's more likely that robots will do jobs that humans don't want to. "We see a more optimistic future than the one painted by technology de-accelerationists — one where robots continue to complement and further enhance human labour and productivity and one in which mundane and hazardous work can be outsourced," they wrote. "But perhaps more pressing still is the starker reality that we will need humanoids." Morgan Stanley is not alone in its bullish stance on humanoids. Last month, Tesla CEO Elon Musk claimed that his company's Optimus robots could eventually take the automaker's value to $25 trillion — over half of the value of the S & P 500 . In January, a demo video showed Optimus robots folding laundry. However, it was strongly criticized by engineers as the robots were being operated by humans and were not autonomous. Still, Morgan Stanley outlined a number of sectors set to potentially benefit from humanoids, with social care likely to be the largest total addressable market. The cost of building humanoid robots could range from $10,000 to $300,000 per robot, the bank said, but added that with "the benefit of scale, the introduction of AI algorithms to significantly shorten the R & D cycle, and the utilization of cost effective components from China, we see opportunities for significant cost reduction." The anaysts came up with a list of 66 stocks that it said "best expresses the humanoids theme." They are categorized as enablers — defined as companies that develop such robots or their inputs such as their "brain and body" — or beneficiaries, which are companies that can benefit from humanoid labor — or both. Here are some of the stocks from Morgan Stanley's list. They include names from the United States, Asia and Europe: — CNBC's Michael Bloom and Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.