Musk Rejects Humanoid Robot Memory Demand Forecast: Calls It Absurd, Says Robot RAM Demand Will Exceed Everything Else on Earth
Musk rejected Counterpoint Research's forecast that humanoid robot DRAM demand will surge 20-fold by 2030, calling it an "absurd analysis" and asserting that robot RAM demand will exceed everything else on Earth, while the computing power demand of superintelligence will far exceed that of robots. Micron Technology has already listed humanoid robots as a core memory demand source for "physical AI devices," alongside autonomous vehicles, and said its existing HBM and high-capacity memory product lines can cover the related demand.
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Counterpoint Research expects humanoid robot storage demand to increase 20-fold over five years, and Musk directly refuted it as "absurd," asserting that robot RAM demand will surpass everything else on Earth, while the computing power demand of superintelligence will far exceed that of robots—a statement that has once again raised the imaginative space of the humanoid robot storage track to a new order of magnitude.
At the same time, memory chip giant Micron Technology has already listed humanoid robots as an important future driver of storage demand, placing them alongside autonomous vehicles and positioning them as a core incremental market for "physical AI" devices, while directly linking related demand to its existing high-bandwidth, high-capacity storage product lines.
Musk's statement and Micron's strategic layout 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 round of storage and computing power demand, and their scale may 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 demand for DRAM from humanoid robots to surge 20-fold by 2030.
In response, Musk directly responded to external forecast analyses of humanoid robot storage demand with strong wording. He wrote: "Absurd analysis. Robot RAM demand will exceed everything else on Earth, because you need robots to run on a physical substrate in order to shape atoms."
The core logic of this statement is that humanoid robots, as the executing entities of the physical world, need to perceive, decide and manipulate matter in the physical environment, and their demand for real-time computing and storage is structural and continuous rather than marginal incremental growth. Musk's implication is that quantifying humanoid robot storage demand merely as "a 20-fold increase in five years" severely underestimates the true scale of this track.
More noteworthy is that Musk further listed Super Intelligence (SI) separately, saying its demand "will far exceed that of robots," and added that about 100% of superintelligence computing power will be deployed in deep space compute. This judgment extends the ultimate imaginative space of storage and computing power demand from Earth to the level of space infrastructure.
Against the backdrop of Musk's remarks, Micron Technology has already taken the lead at the commercial level in incorporating humanoid robots into its core strategic narrative.
According to Yahoo Finance, in its latest round of AI-related commentary, Micron management explicitly labeled humanoid robots as an important future source of storage demand and grouped them together with autonomous vehicles into the emerging category of "physical AI devices." Company 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, as its existing core products for AI servers and data centers can cover the storage needs of humanoid robots.
The strategic significance of this positioning lies in the fact that humanoid robots are expected to use server-grade DRAM and storage solutions similar to those of data centers and autonomous driving platforms, which means Micron can reuse its existing capacity and technological accumulation in this emerging end market without large-scale capital restructuring.
Micron's current overall narrative is already highly dependent on AI and data center demand, tight DRAM and NAND supply and demand, and high-margin cash flow supported by long-term customer agreements. Positioning humanoid robots as another outlet for server-grade storage is highly consistent with the above narrative, but the pace of implementation still depends on whether Micron can continue to execute on advanced processes and fill capacity tied to its large-scale capital expenditure plans.
For investors, humanoid robot storage demand is still at the strategic positioning stage and has not yet formed a quantifiable contribution in financial data.
The most critical observation window in the near term is Micron's guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. Management has already given expectations for that quarter: revenue of about $61.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $37.84. The market will pay close attention to whether management will then provide updated explanations of the specific contribution of physical AI devices—including autonomous driving systems and early humanoid robot deployments—to the above expectations, in order to judge at what speed this theme will truly translate into revenue. Risk disclosure and disclaimer
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