Friday Wrap-Up: The Humanoid Robotics Race and What You Should Be Reading

China's overlapping EV/chip supplier clusters give it a hard-to-replicate edge in both self-driving cars and humanoid robotics.

• Horizon Robotics' niche: CEO Dr. Kai Yu supplies chips/systems for a large share of self-driving cars among Chinese and European makers, but refuses to build cars himself, aiming to be the 'Microsoft/Intel for robots.'
• Chip economics: Yu calls chipmaking a 'terrible business' because it takes five to eight years to turn a profit—yet that long payback period deters competitors, creating a moat.

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