Robotics Stocks With Strong Potential for Long-Term Growth

An updated edition of the June 20, 2025, article. 

The global robotics industry is experiencing an unprecedented transformation in 2025, with market valuations projected at $165.2 billion by 2029 at a CAGR of 16.1%. This has created transformative opportunities for players across every major sector, such as UiPath PATH, NVIDIA NVDA, Advanced Micro Devices AMD and Serve Robotics SERV. This explosive growth is being driven by AI integration, dramatic cost reductions, and the emergence of commercially viable humanoid robots that are revolutionizing operations across manufacturing, healthcare, defense and space exploration sectors. The convergence of foundation models, collaborative robots and autonomous systems has created a breakthrough in robotics, fundamentally changing how businesses approach automation and human-robot collaboration.

AI Integration Transforms Robotic Capabilities and Accessibility

AI has become the catalyst for robotics acceleration, with companies like Alphabet GOOGL-owned Google introducing breakthrough foundation models, including AutoRT and SARA-RT, which enable robots to learn from diverse data sources, including human demonstrations and Internet videos. Tesla's TSLA Optimus humanoid robot, standing 5'8" and weighing 125 pounds, showcases advanced AI-powered movement capabilities. 

The collaborative robot market has exploded from $1.42 billion in 2025 to a projected $3.38 billion by 2030, with dramatic cost reductions making automation accessible to small and medium enterprises. Robot programming has been revolutionized through natural language interfaces, eliminating the need for specialized coding skills and reducing integration costs by up to 50%. Meanwhile, average payback periods for robotic investments have accelerated from 1.7-2 years to just 1.3 years, with some implementations achieving 100% return on investment within 3-6 months.

Industry Leaders Drive Commercial Breakthroughs Across Sectors

Manufacturing continues to dominate robotics adoption, with China installing 276,000 industrial robots in 2023 alone, representing 51% of global installations, while the United States achieved record automotive sector deployments of 14,678 robots, showing 33% growth. Healthcare robotics is experiencing remarkable momentum, with the global surgical robots market projected to grow from $4.31 billion in 2024 to $7.42 billion by 2030, led by Intuitive Surgical's ISRG da Vinci systems performing 1.8 million procedures in 2024. Defense applications are advancing rapidly, with companies like Anduril Industries developing Bolt family drones that achieve 40-minute flight times and can be deployed in under five minutes, while space exploration benefits from NASA's $1.5 billion robotics investment and Mars Perseverance rover's autonomous navigation achievements covering 17.7 kilometers with 88% autonomous operation.

Commercial Humanoid Deployment Marks Historic Milestone

This year marks the first successful commercial deployments of humanoid robots, including Figure AI's Figure 02 robot, achieving 400% speed improvements at BMW's Spartanburg plant and Agility Robotics' Digit robots operating at GXO's Spanx facility. Major funding rounds totaling $6.4 billion have accelerated development, with Physical Intelligence raising $400 million and Skild AI securing $300 million, both backed by Jeff Bezos. The humanoid robotics market is projected to explode from $2.43 billion in 2023 to $66 billion by 2032, representing a staggering 45.5% compound annual growth rate, while manufacturing costs have plummeted from over $250,000 in 2020 to $100,000-$150,000 in 2024, making commercial viability increasingly realistic across diverse industrial applications.

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UiPath's strategic acquisition of Peak AI in March 2025 represents a transformative leap in agentic automation, positioning the company for enterprise robotics evolution. This Manchester-based acquisition enhances UiPath's platform with specialized decision-making agents optimizing pricing and inventory management, demonstrated through compelling success stories like Heidelberg Materials, reducing quotation times from eight hours to thirty minutes.

With first-quarter fiscal 2026 revenues of $357 million, annual recurring revenues of $1.69 billion and recognition as a Leader in Everest Group's assessment for the eighth consecutive year, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company continues to dominate the rapidly evolving automation landscape while expanding beyond traditional robotics into intelligent, autonomous business process optimization. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

NVIDIA’s robotics division demonstrates unprecedented momentum with breakthrough innovations, positioning the company as a dominant force in the emerging $50 trillion physical AI market. The revolutionary Isaac GR00T N1 foundation model represents the world's first open, customizable platform for humanoid robot reasoning, while upcoming Jetson Thor delivers impressive 2,000 teraflops specifically designed for humanoid robots.

Major robotics companies, including Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics and Unitree, are adopting NVIDIA's Isaac Lab framework, demonstrating strong market validation. Europe's first industrial AI cloud featuring 10,000 NVIDIA GPUs solidifies infrastructure dominance, creating revenue streams from hardware, software, and cloud services, making this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock worth watching in the robotics space.

AMD's strategic expansion into robotics presents exceptional investment potential through its comprehensive Kria System-on-Modules portfolio, particularly the KR260 Robotics Starter Kit for industrial applications. The company's partnership with BlackBerry's QNX enables real-time robotics capabilities with reduced latency, addressing critical market needs in surgical robots, autonomous mobile robots and industrial automation.

AMD's adaptive SoCs excel in machine vision, LiDAR processing and multi-axis robot control, while embedded processors support cost-effective scaling from $10,000 to $150,000 systems. With 2025 robotics trends emphasizing AI integration and collaborative robots, This Zacks Rank #3 company's comprehensive platform positions the company to capitalize on the rapidly expanding robotics market, making it an attractive investment opportunity.

Serve Robotics demonstrates exceptional momentum through groundbreaking technological advancements and robust financial execution. The company successfully deployed 250 third-generation robots featuring NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin modules with 5x enhanced computing power, enabling twice the speed and range while halving manufacturing costs. 

First-quarter 2025 revenues surged 150% to $440,000 with geographic expansion into Miami and Dallas markets, reaching 320,000 households. The balance sheet holds $198 million in cash, providing runway through 2026, while merchant partnerships expanded 50% to 1,500. With 2,000 robots targeted for year-end deployment and projected $60-80 million revenue potential, this Zacks Rank #3 company's 99.8% delivery accuracy positions the company as a compelling investment opportunity.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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