Taiwan can play key role in humanoid robot supply chain: Industry operator

Taipei, Jan. 19 (CNA) Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, an industry operator said Sunday, a day after Nvidia Corp. CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and TSMC are jointly creating new opportunities in areas such as robotics and self-driving cars.

Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄), chairman of Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd., a major machine tool manufacturer based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, said that Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes.

Yen added that this ability to produce key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers "become part of the U.S. supply chain," Yen said.

However, he noted that the biggest obstacle to making humanoid robots more widely available is the high cost.

He explained that the current unit cost of humanoid robots is so high that it effectively adds "an extra zero" to the target price. However, "reducing the cost of humanoid robots presents an opportunity for Taiwanese key component manufacturers to play a crucial role," he said.

Jensen Huang concluded his three-day "pop-up" visit to Taipei on Sunday. One day earlier, he hosted a luncheon to treat the high-ranking management of his company's supply chain partners in Taiwan, including contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

After that event, Huang revealed that Nvidia, an American artificial intelligence chip designer, and TSMC are working together to break into new markets and develop business opportunities in robotics and self-driving cars.

Huang is upbeat about the prospects of robotics development. He previously revealed that Nvidia is actively investing in three major robotics hardware and software solutions: Agent AI, humanoid robots and autonomous vehicles.

In his keynote speech at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in early January, he showed off the next-generation Thor Blackwell Robotics Processor, which can be used in automated handling machines (AMR) and humanoid robots.

Meanwhile, Elon Musk, the co-founder and CEO of electric car giant Tesla, announced during the CES that Tesla plans to produce 50,000 to 100,000 Optimus humanoid robots by 2026, with a goal of expanding production to at least an annual output of 500,000 units by 2027.