Jensen Huang, the founder of NVIDIA, recently attended the 2024 Honorary Doctorate Degree Conferral Ceremony at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and delivered a speech. In his speech, he said that the era of robots is coming.

Huang was awarded an honorary doctorate in engineering and delivered a speech on the transformation and prospects of artificial intelligence at the ceremony. He pointed out that artificial intelligence is sparking a scientific revolution, opening up a new era of computing that will affect every scientific field and industry. He specifically mentioned that due to new breakthroughs in physical AI, investment in robotics is surging in heavy industry and manufacturing.

Huang emphasized that with the rapid development of foundational models for cognitive intelligence and physical intelligence, the era of robots is about to arrive. He predicted that three types of robots are likely to achieve mass production in the future: autonomous vehicles, drones, and humanoid robots. Among them, humanoid robots will have unique conditions for mass production because humans have created a world that is fully adapted to human survival. He even said that humanoid robots will be the most produced because we have built a world for ourselves.

Huang also mentioned the unique advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area on a global scale. He pointed out that the Greater Bay Area is the only region that simultaneously possesses electromechanical technology and artificial intelligence technology, providing unique conditions for the development of the robotics industry. He specifically mentioned that the other two electromechanical industrial powers, Japan and Germany, have obvious shortcomings in artificial intelligence technology and urgently need to increase investment to catch up.

Leading enterprise in the field of artificial intelligence

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, NVIDIA, as a leading enterprise in this field, is demonstrating its unparalleled core competitive advantage. Whether in technological innovation, market layout, or ecosystem construction, NVIDIA has led the rapid development of the artificial intelligence industry with its outstanding performance.

NVIDIA's success in the field of artificial intelligence first benefits from its continuous investment in technological innovation. The company's founder and CEO, Jensen Huang, has forward-looking strategic vision and foresaw the huge potential of GPUs in scientific computing, machine learning, and other fields many years ago. Therefore, NVIDIA has continuously launched groundbreaking innovative products and technologies, such as the CUDA platform and DPU data processing unit, which have laid a solid foundation for the development of artificial intelligence.

In addition, NVIDIA has independently developed many key technologies, which allows the company to not rely on external suppliers such as TSMC when necessary, thereby ensuring the stability and reliability of the supply chain. This independent and controllable technology research and development capability provides a strong guarantee for NVIDIA's long-term development in the field of artificial intelligence.

NVIDIA's layout in the artificial intelligence market is also noteworthy. Leveraging its leading position in the GPU market, the company has successfully transformed into a leading enterprise in the era of artificial intelligence. NVIDIA not only occupies an important position in the gaming graphics card market but also holds a 98% share in the data center GPU market, becoming a leader in artificial intelligence computing.

At the same time, NVIDIA is actively expanding its market globally and has established close cooperation with many leading enterprises in the industry. These partners cover various fields such as healthcare, automotive, and robotics, jointly promoting the innovation and application of artificial intelligence technology. Through a wide market layout and in-depth industry cooperation, NVIDIA has successfully occupied a leading position in the artificial intelligence market.

Another core competitive advantage of NVIDIA in the field of artificial intelligence is the complete ecosystem it has built. The company is well aware that to achieve long-term success in the field of artificial intelligence, it must build a complete industrial chain from chip design to system integration to application scenario development.

Therefore, NVIDIA actively integrates global top suppliers to form a seamlessly connected industrial chain. In this ecosystem, NVIDIA closely cooperates with key suppliers such as Amphenol and Vertiv to jointly promote the development of AI computing infrastructure. At the same time, NVIDIA also provides strong support for the development of various robots through its Isaac, Omniverse, and Jetson platforms, promoting the innovation and application of robotics technology.

With the continuous development of AI technology, NVIDIA will continue to increase its investment in technological innovation and launch more groundbreaking products and technologies. At the same time, NVIDIA will actively explore new application scenarios and promote the implementation of artificial intelligence technology in more fields.

Humanoid robot industry ushering in an explosion

In recent years, the humanoid robot industry has ushered in unprecedented development opportunities worldwide, thanks to breakthroughs in generative artificial intelligence technology. This field has rapidly become the focus of attention of technology enterprises and capital markets. Well-known domestic and foreign enterprises such as Huawei, Xiaomi, Tencent, and Tesla have increased their investment, driving the continuous advancement of the humanoid robot industry.

According to industry analysis reports, China's humanoid robot industry entered an explosive growth phase in 2023, with the industry scale growing to 3.91 billion yuan, an increase of 85.7% year-on-year. It is expected that this industry will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, and by 2026, the scale of China's humanoid robot industry will exceed 20 billion yuan.

Policy support also provides a strong guarantee for the development of the humanoid robot industry. Governments in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and other places have issued local support policies, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has also released the "Guidance on Innovation and Development of Humanoid Robots," clearly stating that by 2025, a preliminary innovation system for humanoid robots will be established, and by 2027, the comprehensive strength will reach the world's advanced level, becoming an important new engine for economic growth.

At the technical level, humanoid robot enterprises have made breakthroughs in multiple key technology areas, with the number of related technology patent applications leading globally. For example, the domestic humanoid robot brand Lingbao CASBOT has released the full-size bipedal humanoid robot "CASBOT 01," which realizes integrated motion control, can stand and walk stably on two feet, and has various functions such as organizing clothing, assembling table lamps, changing light bulbs, and screwing.

In addition, the high-speed reasoning model R-DDIRM for humanoid robots based on a diffusion architecture, launched by the Chengdu Humanoid Robot Innovation Center, has also made significant progress in parameter optimization, motion smoothness, and data acquisition efficiency, demonstrating the ability of humanoid robots to efficiently handle tasks in complex environments.

In terms of commercialization, the application scenarios for humanoid robots continue to expand. From the initial industrial manufacturing field to now, they have penetrated into various areas of people's livelihoods, such as healthcare, housekeeping, agriculture, and logistics. For example, in the collaborative work of humanoid robots and robotic arms, both provide a "booster" for the transformation from manufacturing to smart manufacturing. In addition, humanoid robots also play an important role in emergency rescue and public safety, becoming an important tool to replace human labor, improve production efficiency, and enhance the quality of life.

The commercialization process of humanoid robots also faces many challenges. Insufficient technological maturity, cost control issues, and limitations in application scenarios are currently urgent problems to be solved. To bridge the "last mile" of commercialization, domestic humanoid robot enterprises need to focus on technological breakthroughs and innovation, optimize production processes, reduce costs, and at the same time deeply explore market demand and actively expand application scenarios.

With the rapid development of industrial chain technologies such as artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and sensors, humanoid robots will be more widely used in various scenarios, driving the further expansion of the humanoid robot market. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2035, the market size of humanoid robots is expected to reach 154 billion dollars. On this trillion-level racetrack, China is starting at the same time as other countries, and the humanoid robot industry is expected to become a new pillar for promoting high-quality economic development in China.