Counterpoint Research projects that humanoid robot memory demand will surge 20-fold over five years, but Elon Musk has dismissed that forecast outright as "absurd," asserting that robot RAM requirements will exceed everything else on Earth, while superintelligence's computing needs will dwarf even those of robots—a statement that has once again raised the imaginative ceiling for the humanoid robot memory sector to an entirely new magnitude.
Meanwhile, memory chip giant Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) has already positioned humanoid robots as a key future driver of memory demand, placing them alongside autonomous vehicles as core incremental markets for "physical AI" devices, and directly linking that demand to its existing high-bandwidth, high-capacity memory product lines.
Musk's remarks and Micron's strategic positioning echo each other, jointly pointing to a market narrative that is taking shape: humanoid robots and the superintelligence behind them may become the core engine of the next wave of memory and computing demand, at a scale that could far exceed current market expectations.
Musk: Existing analysis is "absurd," robot RAM demand will surpass everything on Earth
On the 26th local time, @wallstengine posted on social platform X that Counterpoint Research expects humanoid robot demand for DRAM to surge 20-fold by 2030.
In response, Musk directly addressed external forecasts on humanoid robot memory demand with strong wording. He wrote: "Absurd analysis. Robot RAM demand will exceed everything else on Earth, because you need robots running on a physical substrate in order to shape atoms."
The core logic behind this statement is that humanoid robots, as executing agents in the physical world, need to perceive, decide and manipulate matter in real physical environments, which creates structural and continuous demand for real-time computing and memory—not a marginal increment. Musk's implication is that quantifying humanoid robot memory demand merely as a "20-fold increase over five years" severely underestimates the true scale of this sector.
More notably, Musk further singled out Super Intelligence (SI), saying its demand "will far exceed robots," and added that roughly 100% of superintelligence compute will be deployed in deep space compute. This judgment extends the ultimate imaginative space for memory and computing demand from Earth to the level of space infrastructure.
Micron bets on humanoid robots, with "physical AI" as a new narrative anchor
Against the backdrop of Musk's comments, Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) has already taken the lead in incorporating humanoid robots into its core strategic narrative at the commercial level.
According to Yahoo Finance, Micron management, in its latest round of AI-related commentary, explicitly labeled humanoid robots as an important future source of memory demand and grouped them with autonomous vehicles under the emerging category of "physical AI devices." Management directly linked this expected demand to its existing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-capacity storage product lines, emphasizing that no entirely new products need to be developed—existing core products for AI servers and data centers can already cover humanoid robot memory needs.
The strategic significance of this positioning is that humanoid robots are expected to use server-grade DRAM and storage solutions similar to those used in data centers and autonomous driving platforms, meaning Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) can reuse its existing capacity and technological accumulation for this emerging end market without large-scale capital restructuring.
Micron's overall narrative is now highly dependent on AI and data center demand, tight DRAM and NAND supply-demand dynamics, and high-margin cash flow supported by long-term customer agreements. Positioning humanoid robots as another outlet for server-grade memory is highly consistent with that narrative, but the pace of realization still depends on whether Micron can continue to execute on advanced process nodes and fill capacity tied to its large-scale capital expenditure plans.
For investors, humanoid robot memory demand remains at the strategic positioning stage and has not yet formed a quantifiable contribution in financial data.
The most critical near-term window for observation is Micron's guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Management has already provided expectations for that quarter: revenue of about $61.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $37.84. The market will be watching closely to see whether management updates its explanation of the specific contribution from physical AI devices—including autonomous driving systems and early humanoid robot deployments—to those expectations, in order to judge at what speed this theme truly converts into revenue.
Comments