Texas Instruments (TXN) says each humanoid robot could carry $500 to $1,000 of its chips, CEO Haviv Ilan said on Oct. 21 during the company's third-quarter earnings call. That is a rare yardstick in a field where outsiders have little idea what the parts cost.
Read it carefully, though. The figure is TI's possible share of one robot, not the robot's price and not a revenue forecast. Ilan expects robotics activity to climb sharply in 2027 and said customers want to expand, but TI has not said how many humanoids it expects to be built. In his words: "I do not know how many they will build there next year, but definitely the demand is they want to grow". The per-robot number is a claim. The total is still blank.
What TI wants to put inside
TI is pitching power chips made from gallium nitride, a material that switches electricity faster and wastes less of it than silicon, along with microcontrollers that run motors in real time and precision analog parts for sensing. The targets are a robot's joints and hands, and TI has published reference designs for both.
Who is already on board
TI says it supplies Apptronik, a humanoid maker. TokenPost also reports a March announcement of work with NVIDIA to pair TI's radar chip with the Jetson Thor platform for 3D perception and safety, but its report does not give the year. It also says TI is bringing UBTECH's Walker S2 humanoids onto its own production lines, without saying whether the robots would do manufacturing work, testing or only demonstrations. UBTECH is said to plan more use of TI parts in return, though the timing is only loosely dated. We found no official statement from TI or UBTECH confirming the arrangement, and the call transcript does not mention Apptronik, UBTECH or NVIDIA in this context.
How solid the reporting is
The first report comes from digitimes, a Taiwan-based trade publication that covers the semiconductor supply chain. The second is from TokenPost, an outlet best known for crypto and blockchain news rather than chips, so we lean on it less for technical detail. The $500 to $1,000 figure itself is now confirmed by two published transcripts of the call, from Motley Fool and Investing.com. TI's own earnings release for the quarter does not mention robotics, so the number rests on Ilan's spoken remarks rather than a filing.
Watch TI's next earnings materials for a unit forecast or a named customer volume. Then there would be something to multiply.
If chips are only $500 to $1,000 of the bill, what do you think keeps humanoids expensive?
Sources
- 1.Texas Instruments sees up to $1,000 in chip content per humanoid robot as analog supply tightens · digitimes
- 2.Texas Instruments Sees $500 to $1,000 in Chips per Humanoid Robot | TokenPost · TokenPost
- 3.Texas Instruments (TXN) Q3 2026 Earnings Call Transcript · The Motley Fool
- 4.Earnings call transcript: Texas Instruments tops Q3 2026 forecasts · Investing.com
- 5.Texas Instruments Form 8-K, Q3 2026 earnings release · U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Reported by the WattsUpNext desk from the sources linked below. Spot an error? Tell us at corrections@wattsupnext.com.
The WattsUpNext Brief
Get stories like this in your inbox.
One email each weekday, only the topics you choose. Real news, sourced, no fluff. Unsubscribe in one click.
