Chip manufacturing giant NVIDIA will increase investment in robotics in 2025. More specifically, the Financial Times confirmed that in the first half of this year, NVIDIA will launch a new generation of compact computers for humanoid robots called JetsonThor.

Above: Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus; NVIDIA said it would first provide Tesla with the technology to build the machine

The move was expected and is part of an evolving, multi-year strategy. As Deepu Talla, NVIDIA's vice president of robotics, told reporters in Tokyo last month, NVIDIA does not intend to compete directly with manufacturers such as Tesla, but to provide a kind of underlying OEM for "hundreds of thousands" of robot manufacturers around the world.

As for why now, Talla told the Financial Times that the shift was down to two technological breakthroughs: the explosion of generative AI models and the ability to use simulated environments to train robots.

NVIDIA doesn’t say it explicitly, but the facts are clear: NVIDIA is promoting the development of artificial intelligence robots because large customers such as Amazon and Google are working to reduce their dependence on NVIDIA artificial intelligence chips by developing their own artificial intelligence chips.