Macro themes
These are the structural themes that public macro and technology commentary returns to again and again when it discusses AI and robotics. Each theme lists the directory companies it touches. The themes are a way to organise the directory, not an investment view.
Physical AI & humanoids
AI models are moving from screens into machines that sense and act in the physical world, such as humanoids, mobile manipulators, surgical robots and delivery robots. The theme tracks the robot makers and the component suppliers (actuators, gears, compute) they rely on.
Public data points tracked
- Commercial deployments and unit shipments disclosed in filings
- New listings (IPOs/SPACs) of humanoid makers
- Component supply chains: actuators, reducers, batteries, edge compute
AI capex & the compute build-out
Hyperscalers, AI labs and sovereign buyers are spending heavily on accelerators, memory, networking and data-centre systems. The theme tracks the chip designers, foundries, memory makers, server builders and GPU clouds that supply that spending.
Public data points tracked
- Hyperscaler capex guidance in quarterly filings
- Foundry and HBM capacity commentary
- Data-centre networking and custom-silicon announcements
Power & the grid as the bottleneck
AI data centres need large, reliable power supply, which puts generation, nuclear, gas turbines, grid equipment and cooling in focus. The theme tracks the companies that supply electrons and the hardware that moves and conditions them.
Public data points tracked
- Long-term power purchase agreements with data-centre operators
- Grid interconnection and turbine order backlogs disclosed by companies
- Nuclear licensing milestones (public regulator dockets)
Directory companies (8)
Reshoring & factory automation
Labour scarcity, supply-chain security and industrial policy are pushing manufacturers to automate and bring production closer to home. The theme tracks industrial robots, motion control, machine vision and warehouse automation.
Public data points tracked
- Industrial robot order data published by trade bodies
- Factory construction and industrial-policy announcements
- Warehouse automation contracts disclosed by vendors
Autonomy: robotaxis, robotrucks & delivery
Self-driving software is moving into commercial service in robotaxis, driverless freight and sidewalk delivery. The theme tracks the operators, the autonomy-stack developers and their chip and sensor suppliers.
Public data points tracked
- Driverless miles and fleet sizes disclosed by operators
- Regulatory permits by city and state
- Partnerships with ride-hail and delivery platforms
Sensing & machine perception
Robots and autonomous systems need to see. The theme covers lidar, image sensors, thermal imaging, machine vision and the edge-AI chips that process sensor data.
Public data points tracked
- Design wins announced by lidar and vision suppliers
- Automotive and robotics sensor programme launches
- Pricing trends for lidar units (from company disclosures)