A public research surface · updated continuously
The humanoid race will be won by whoever owns the chokepoints.
Strain-wave gears, RV reducers, ball screws, frameless motors, force-torque sensing, rare-earth magnets. Robot Bottlenecks maps the physical supply chain behind every humanoid and cobot — and the listed companies that own each choke. Own the strait, not the tanker.
50 names tracked · 10 chokepoints · free, no login
The chokepoints
I
Strain-wave gears & RV reducers
Every robot joint routes torque through a precision reducer — and two Japanese companies own the global installed base.
NCTKY · HSYDF · TKR · SOHVY
II
Ball screws, linear guides & bearings
Smooth linear motion is a metallurgy-and-grinding art owned by a handful of Japanese precision houses.
SFFLY · THKLY · NPSKY · TKR · RBC · GSA
III
Frameless motors & integrated actuators
Humanoids need dozens of compact high-torque-density actuators; the merchant motor bench is thin and the leaders are vertically integrating.
RRX · ALNT · MOG.A · NJDCY · HSYDF · TSLA
IV
Rare-earth magnets & motor materials
Every actuator is wound around NdFeB magnets — a China-controlled input the humanoid ramp multiplies by 40+ joints per robot.
MP · USAR · LYSCF · UUUU · NOVEON
V
Force-torque, tactile & vision sensing
Manipulation lives or dies on force and touch sensing; the merchant suppliers are few and mostly buried inside diversified names.
NOVT · TEL · ALGM · CGNX · STM · TSLA
VI
Robot brains & edge AI compute
A humanoid is a robot wrapped around an AI computer; the perception-and-policy silicon comes from one dominant vendor and a thin second tier.
NVDA · QCOM · AMBA · LSCC · KOID · FIGURE
VII
Batteries & power density
A humanoid shift is a battery problem: kWh-class packs, high discharge rates, and NDAA-clean supply for defense-adjacent buyers.
AMPX · ENVX · ULBI · ENS
VIII
Robot platforms & integrators
The visible layer: listed robot makers and integrators racing deployment numbers — tier by robots actually shipped and dollars actually booked.
SYM · TER · FANUY · YASKY · SERV · KSCP
IX
Simulation, training & robot software
Robots are trained in simulation before they ship; the sim-to-real toolchain concentrates in a few platforms.
NVDA · PTC · SNPS · U
X
Private giants & exposure vehicles
Figure, Boston Dynamics, Agility, 1X, Apptronik — the humanoid cap tables without tickers, and the listed paths into them.
005380.KS · ARKVX · HSYDF · NCTKY · NJDCY · GOOGL · NVDA · HUMN · FIGURE · BOSTONDYNAMICS · APPTRONIK · AGILITYROBOTICS
Latest brief · 2026-10-26
The humanoid-robotics basket rebounded with the chip tape on Friday, led by the battery and edge-AI rungs, while the bearings-and-motion name Schaeffler was the standout decliner ahead of its nine-month print.
The leader was Enovix (ENVX), up 9.4% to $2.79 on the batteries-and-power-density chokepoint — the energy-storage rung that gates runtime and payload in any untethered humanoid. Friday was a risk-on rebound rather than a company event: after Thursday's AI-and-semiconductor rout (the Nasdaq Composite fell 2.60% to 26,008.86 and the SOX dropped 6.7%), the chip tape steadied Friday with the SOX up 0.44% to 10,779.46, and the robotics basket's highest-beta component names snapped back. There was no confirmed catalyst behind Enovix's move; it led a broad bounce in the cell and silicon rungs.
The laggard was Schaeffler's ADR (SFFLY), down 6.5% to $6.00 on the ball-screws-linear-guides-and-bearings chokepoint — the precision-motion hardware that every actuated joint rides on. The decline came with no fresh print, extending a drift lower in a thin ADR ahead of the company's nine-month 2026 results on November 3; it was the sharpest fall in the basket.
The bounce clustered in the compute, sensing and motor-material rungs. Edge-AI compute recovered with the semis: Ambarella (AMBA) +5.4% to $66.50 and Synopsys (SNPS) +1.8% to $430.14. The force-torque-and-vision-sensing rung firmed — Novanta (NOVT) +3.0% to $140.80 and Cognex (CGNX) +1.7% to $55.55 — as did the precision-gears read Harmonic Drive's ADR (HSYDF) +2.0% to $31.20. The two humanoid-theme ETFs rose with the group, the KraneShares humanoid fund (KOID) +2.2% to $33.21 and the Roundhill humanoid fund (HUMN) +3.7% to $27.40. The platform-and-integrator rung was split: FANUC's ADR (FANUY) rebounded 8.8% to $19.26 in its own session, while Symbotic (SYM) −2.7% to $39.28 and Serve Robotics (SERV) −3.5% to $2.78 lagged. The rare-earth-magnets-and-motor-materials chokepoint stayed soft, USA Rare Earth (USAR) −3.1% to $9.33, with Nidec's ADR (NJDCY) −3.8% to $2.50; actuation anchor Tesla (TSLA) was roughly flat at −0.6% to $372.22 and bearings name RBC (RBC) −1.3% to $471.98.
The calendar fills quickly. Hyundai Motor's Q3 report is expected October 27 and Timken's Q3 October 30, with Schaeffler's nine-month results November 3 — the next read on the motion-hardware rung. China's one-year suspension of its October 2025 rare-earth export controls expires November 10, the single date that most directly reprices the magnet strait, and the DFARS 252.225-7052 ban on Chinese-melted NdFeB and SmCo magnets in defense systems takes effect January 1. The headline demand signals sit at year-end and beyond: the analyst-flagged Boston Dynamics IPO-decision window around December 1, the Humanoids Summit (December 1–2), the targeted GR00T N2 foundation-model availability by December 31, and CES 2027 in January. Until the magnet date clears, the motor-materials rung stays the basket's structural variable.