RoboStrategy's portfolio is gaining real-world validation: its fourth- and fifth-largest holdings, Apptronik at 15% of NAV and Dexmate at 10%, are being used at Google. x.com
Kevin Xu
Founder of AfterHour, CEO of Alpha
RoboStrategy's BOT fund stands to benefit from a Trump administration ban on new Chinese humanoid robot imports, since most of its holdings are US-domiciled. It remains one of the few ways to invest in robotics. Over the past month, US robot-arm maker Standard Bots became its largest holding after a Series C, it added Jeff Bezos' Prometheus, and Figure shipped its 1,000th humanoid. NAV is $249M, or $10.51 a share, and the shares trade near 2.5x NAV. The macro is volatile. x.com x.com
RoboStrategy gives retail investors pre-IPO exposure to leading US humanoid robot makers, and its chart is coiled for a breakout. CEO Andrew Kang named Tesla Optimus, Figure AI and Apptronik his top three American humanoid plays from 112 startups; Figure AI and Apptronik are among its largest disclosed holdings. He cited Figure 03 robots sorting a quarter-million packages over 200 hours without a major glitch. Price has squeezed into a symmetrical triangle since July, with $29.50 as the trigger. … Show more
BOT's private share issuance at 3.38x NAV is accretive rather than dilutive, because the cash stays in the fund to invest in new companies or new rounds at higher valuations. By estimate it lifted NAV from about $10.51 to $10.97 a share, and the stock has tended to bottom near each new, higher 3x NAV level. The main bet is portfolio companies raising new rounds; if Apptronik or Figure AI raised at 2x their last round, holders get all that upside. A 1x NAV price, Nvidia's entry level, won't come. … Show more
BOT, the robotics investment vehicle, looks built to capture dumb money riding robotics hype rather than to reward investors. It came to market at 5x NAV, still trades around 3.5x, charges a heavy ~3.6% annual fee and recruits crypto Twitter influencers, much like a Chamath-style SPAC. Toxic vehicles chasing robotics hype are likely to leave retail badly hurt, though such schemes can run hard until the music stops. x.com x.com
A sharply higher humanoid shipment forecast supports robotics suppliers even as sentiment struggles. JPMorgan now sees 1.8 million units by 2030, about 152% CAGR. Ouster offers broad perception exposure through Rev8, Stereolabs and software; Harmonic Drive makes rotary actuators, Regal Rexnord frameless torque motors and linear actuators, VPG force/torque sensors for joints and grippers, and One Stop Systems rugged edge AI compute for field robots. x.com
Robotics may be AI's next frontier, and the bigger opportunity may be everything that makes robots move, not just humanoids. Deploying millions of robots needs motors, sensors, vision, motion control and factory, warehouse and surgical automation. The picks and shovels include Amazon and Symbotic in warehouses, Teradyne, ABB and Fanuc in industrial robots, Rockwell, Honeywell and Parker Hannifin in automation and motion, Cognex, Ouster, Zebra, Intuitive Surgical, Serve and UiPath. x.com
BOT risks trapping retail buyers at large gaps to its NAV, since its shares trade daily on hype and social media noise, amplified by insiders with big reach on X, while its private robotics holdings sit at rarely updated funding-round valuations with no continuous market check. Its 2.5% management fee and 3.22% total expense ratio also set an exceptionally high bar for returns. x.com
Robotics component suppliers get paid on every robot no matter which maker wins, as capital floods into the sector. Robotics VC hit a record of over $16 billion in a quarter, and Goldman sees the humanoid market growing from under $2 billion to $38 billion by 2035, with the inflection around 2027-28. Nvidia supplies the compute and training platforms, Ambarella edge AI chips, Ouster lidar, Vishay Precision force sensors, and memory makers the memory every robot needs. x.com x.com
Google is being slept on in AI, though six months ago it had the world's best frontier LLM and has not released a new primary model since. The current wave of AI adoption is cross-integration with everything people use, and Google is uniquely positioned to capture it across email, Chrome, search and more; that value unlock has barely started. If open-source models win and intelligence becomes nearly free, its network effects still position it well. Its quantum lab is the other half of the case. … Show more
RoboStrategy is a red flag because buyers pay about five times its net asset value, effectively valuing its Figure stake at over $200 billion versus Figure's $39 billion valuation. Shares trade at $37.92 against a NAV of $7.34, and about $2 billion of ongoing dilution exploits that gap. Most retail buyers don't read filings or understand closed-end funds, so the price reflects float dynamics, not fundamentals, leaving them as exit liquidity. Unitree, the top humanoid maker, lists at $6 billion. … Show more
Alphabet is a stock to invest in for the future even as it burns cash for the first time since going public, after raising its AI infrastructure spending forecast. x.com x.com x.com