Managing Editor’s Note: Thanks to everyone who joined us this afternoon for Jeff’s Robotaxi Emergency Briefing…
We had a great time learning about how Tesla’s self-driving Cybercabs are going to transform the transportation industry and about the companies Jeff has his eye on to play the trend. He even revealed one of his top picks.
If you missed it earlier today, don’t worry. Jeff’s airing an encore event this evening at 8 p.m. ET.
It’s not too late for you to learn how to position yourself to profit from this unstoppable tech trend before it starts to play out in cities across the U.S.
Just go here to watch it tonight at 8 p.m.
There’s no other way to describe it. It’s an arms race.
But it’s not about the military or defense.
It’s about economic might and productivity.
Which is why winning the race has become a national priority for China…
The race to build millions of intelligent humanoid robots.
To that end, China has opened up what it calls (translated) the National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center, located in Shanghai.
Source: National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center
It’s a massive, 5,000-square-meter facility designed to support more than 100 types of robots being developed across the country. The purpose, of course, is to accelerate China’s national ambitions to lead the world in intelligent humanoid robots.
China’s approach, not surprisingly, is different. The purpose of the center is to “enable large-scale data sharing and utilization, empowering the entire industry.” And the approach is to use human “trainers” to teach each kind of robot their assigned tasks, sometimes requiring up to 600 repetitions a day.
Below, we can see an image of a human trainer guiding the upper body of a humanoid robot to care for a plant. We can also see the line of robots in the background all being trained on the same task.
Source: National and Local Co-built Humanoid Robotics Innovation Center
The Innovation Center is now capable of generating 20,000 to 30,000 data entries for individual tasks daily, and by this summer is expected to produce 50,000 data entries a day. By the end of this year, the Center expects to have accumulated more than 10 million data entries.
At first glance, this might not seem like that much of a surprise…
But the scale is impressive.
China is aggressively trying to catch up with the West on intelligent humanoid robotic developments.
What’s unique and different – compared to the U.S. and Europe – is that the national and local governments are directly involved.
In the West, companies like Tesla, Figure AI, Apptronik, Agility Robotics, Boston Dynamics, 1X Technologies, Sanctuary AI, and others are all developing their technology in-house. Private industry is providing national leadership.
China’s approach also informs us about how they are tackling the complex challenge of developing general-purpose humanoid robots.
Given the scale, size, and efforts to collect data on every individual task, I would describe what China is doing as a brute-force method of training robots.
Each task assigned is individualized and trained specifically for that purpose. The innovation center’s purpose is to generate as much training data as humanly possible in the shortest period and make that data available to all China-based robot manufacturers.
But this is an entirely different approach to that of Tesla with Optimus, Apptronik, Figure AI, and others that have developed or are developing neural networks – basically synthetic brains – capable of learning and reasoning.
These companies collect videos and data from the real world, as well as generate synthetic data, to train their humanoid robots. They aren’t lining up thousands of human trainers repeating a single task up to 600 times a day to collect data for training a wide range of robots.
This is what Musk meant when he recently said that Tesla has already created “the most sophisticated humanoid robot on Earth.” Tesla’s neural network was developed from the ground up for robotic autonomy specifically how to safely navigate the real world – whether on wheels or two feet.
That’s the foundation for every task, no matter if it’s residential, industrial, medical, or enterprise-related.
A neural network that understands the capabilities of the mechanical robot – the hardware – within which it resides, can learn from doing and practicing until “they” master the task. And once one individual robot from the same class of robots has learned a task, that learned knowledge can be downloaded to all robots of the same make.
It’s a Matrix-like moment. Plug in… and now you’re an expert.
Despite what is parroted so often by the press, China is way behind in inventing intelligent, general-purpose humanoid robots. I’m not referring to the hardware, but to the “brain” – the neural network – capable of learning and operating freely in any environment, much like a Tesla is capable of navigating any road, entirely by vision, with no detailed mapping necessary.
China’s approach to training humanoid robots informs us of this. It’s not scalable, and it’s highly evident from how the country is tackling the challenge.
But it has the human resources and the capability to forge ahead regardless.
Clearly, there is too much at stake.
The urgency of this adversarial race between the U.S. and China is visible everywhere, in every technological endeavor that matters:
And yes, it’s especially visible in U.S. economic policy, even when technology isn’t an explicit part of the conversation.
The current tariff policies are entirely about this race and anyone who doesn’t realize this is missing the entire point. It became evident yesterday when President Trump – in a single tweet – isolated China as the singular bad actor versus “everyone else” coming to the table to strike mutually beneficial trade deals.
President Trump has smoked out China… and revealed very clearly the unwillingness of China to have a more balanced, mutually beneficial trade relationship, or to address its government-sponsored role in trafficking fentanyl across U.S. borders.
Of course, I’m sure most of us prefer peaceful global relationships, no war, and balanced and fair trade agreements – though, with China, that is far less likely.
But it’s about so much more…
This race between the U.S. and China is just as much about commanding economic growth and prosperity as it is about national security. It’s about shifting the favor back in the direction of the United States and slowing down China a notch or several.
The last several years, we might not have believed it to be possible. Today, there isn’t just hope. There’s a plan.
What more motivation to move as fast as possible would you need than that?
Tempus fugit… time flies.
Jeff
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
The Bleeding Edge is the only free newsletter that delivers daily insights and information from the high-tech world as well as topics and trends relevant to investments.
