A humanoid robots competes in the Standing tug of war event during the Second World Humanoid Robot Games at National Speed Skating Oval on Aug. 25, 2026, in Beijing, China. A new JPMorgan report says humanoid demand will boom.
The good news: There are plenty of jobs that the U.S. manufacturing industry will need.
But a new research note imagines much of those unfilled jobs will go to humanoid robots.
The note comes from JPMorgan analysts covering Hyundai Motor (KR:005380) and Kia (KR:000270), in which Hyundai has a 35% stake. Hyundai also owns Boston Dynamics, a leading maker of robots.
JPMorgan found the U.S. manufacturing industry has a shortage of 462,000 jobs, reaching 1.6 million in 2030.
Some 25% of those jobs can be filled by humanoids - who can perform materials handling, parts transfers, machine tending and quality inspections - with technology improvements potentially expanding that figure to 50% of those roles by 2030.
In warehousing specifically, those humanoids will cost about $10 to $12 per hour to operate - a big saving over the $30 per hour for human labor.
Granted, the humanoids are worse workers. Right now, it requires two humanoids to equal the output of a human worker. But the JPMorgan team estimated that will fall to a range of 1.2 to 1.3 humanoids. JPMorgan said the humanoids can be complements rather than substitutes for human labor.
Right now, there are three bottlenecks for humanoids, according to the report: brains, hands and supply-chain readiness. Hyundai is tackling the brain and supply-chain elements, the JPMorgan analysis said. The hands part is actually very challenging, and the analysts said that Hyundai may end up using those created by a third party.
What will these humanoids cost? JPMorgan estimated an average selling price of some $120,000 per unit - much higher than the long-term targets of $20,000 to $30,000 floated by Tesla $(TSLA)$ CEO Elon Musk. The research note imagined that industrial buyers will be more interested in reliability and upgradability than a low list price.
Interest in humanoids has piqued in recent days following the Chinese robot competition and the IPO of Chinese robot firm Unitree Robotics, whose official name is Yushu Technology (CN:688836).
Unitree's stock has fallen 46% from its post-IPO high.
-Steve Goldstein