News
The Bot Brief
POSTED 02/02/2025
"There is no force on earth more powerful than an idea whose time has come."
- Victor Hugo
Bots in the News:
In a week that noted considerable volatility, the Bot Index declined 2.06% and the broader market fell 1%. Fears of impending tariff implications and Federal Reserve policy restraint forced a Friday swing from early strength to a 337 point Dow slide. Generally, not good implications for strength in the coming week.
The worst performance within the Bot Index was NVIDIA Corp. whose fortunes slid almost 16%. Unless the DeepSeek’s success turns out to be a deepfake, the app phenomenon set doubts that questioned the effectiveness of the immense amount of money on AI and the reliance on advanced NVIDIA chips.
The fortunes of Lockheed Martin, iRobot and ABB LTD. declined 6.84%, 8.67% and 8.32%
respectively were attributed to weaker than expected earnings. Lockheed’s net income fell 23% for the full year. ABB LTD. had been one of the best performers during the prior week.
Apple was the only noteworthy gainer during the week. The company reported a 4% increase in revenues, a 7% jump in net income and earnings per share of $2.41 for the first quarter versus $2.19 in the comparable quarter of 2024.
A Major Robotic Collaboration:
A partnership between Boston Dynamics and Toyota Research Institute (TRI) was recently established to help mold the physical capabilities of Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot Atlas and the large behavior model learnings of TRI. The focus of the joint venture is initially to develop research that could eventually make ‘personal’ robots a household feature. Scott Kuindersma of TRI did not underestimate the financial potential of this opportunity when he said, “It’s not lost on either of our organizations that this is maybe one of the most exciting points in the history of robotics.”