The robot boom is attracting big money. But who actually gets paid when the machines get to work?
In this Mere Mortals Robotics episode, I explore the robotics money map: the market’s size, the major players, and the economics that could determine what gets deployed between now and 2029.
From NVIDIA, Alphabet and Amazon to Figure, Unitree and Boston Dynamics, we look beyond humanoid headlines to industrial robots, warehouse automation, autonomous machinery and robots working in our homes.This is me learning in public, testing ideas and trying to understand where robotics becomes genuinely useful.
Recorded in September 2026. Company valuations and market figures reflect the discussion at that time. Cost examples and deployment scenarios are illustrative assumptions, rather than company quotes or guaranteed forecasts.
CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction: mapping the robot economy
01:36 Industrial robots versus humanoids
03:13 What counts as the robotics market?
04:08 Factory robot growth towards 2029
05:42 China’s role in robot adoption
07:17 Service robots and transport
08:09 Automation and global supply chains
09:31 Big tech and the robotics money map
11:06 Specialists, humanoids and autonomous machinery
13:22 Who pays for robots to learn?
15:12 The potential AI–robotics feedback loop
16:20 Can robots learn before arriving?
17:46 Getting more from existing robots
19:13 Why reliability compounds across a job
21:29 The cost of a useful robot hour
23:16 Human support and fleet failures
25:23 Obsolescence and resale risk
26:16 Who keeps the savings?
27:35 What could actually be deployed by 2029?
29:36 More robot output, less supplier revenue?
31:13 Insurance, risk and deployment plans
32:30 Home robot subscriptions and useful hours
33:20 Different countries, different opportunities
34:06 Five metrics that would change my mind
35:03 What needs to happen next?
36:20 Closing thoughts
Where do you think robots will become economically useful first: warehouses, factories, mining or our homes? Let me know below.
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