Physical AI: Strategic Intelligence

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Published: September 14, 2026 Report Code: GDTMT-TR-S730-TH

Report Overview
Key Players
Table of Contents

Physical AI is the next step in the evolution of robotics. It marks a shift from machines that follow fixed instructions to embodied systems that perceive, reason, and act autonomously. Physical AI systems are built on real-world physical interaction data, incorporate an understanding of the physical world, and are deployed in physical entities such as robots, autonomous vehicles, drones, or industrial systems.

Scope

This report provides an overview of physical AI, which is the next step in the evolution of robotics.

It provides a clear definition of physical AI and analyzes the theme's value chain.

The report gives an overview of geographic trends in physical AI, with a focus on Chjna, Japan, and South Korea, and includes details of industry case studies.

Key Highlights

Physical AI combines multiple technologies, including the Internet of Things (IoT), generative AI, agentic AI, machine learning, world models, vision-language models (VLMs), and vision-language action (VLA) models. Physical AI uses multimodal tools (like VLMs) to interpret sensory data, understand spatial relationships, and plan complex sequences of actions to achieve a goal.

Early industry adopters of physical AI include discrete manufacturing, healthcare, security and surveillance, mining, energy, construction, and transportation. In Asia Pacific (APAC), physical AI deployments are underway to address labor shortages, especially in the manufacturing sector.

Reasons to Buy

Early commercialization of physical AI is occurring across numerous industries. The real acceleration from 2027 onward will be driven by dramatic drops in the cost of dexterous actuation and edge-computing hardware, and the maturation of large language models (LLMs) that enable general-purpose reasoning, real-world navigation, and task learning without hours of programming. This report provides an invaluable insight into this highly disruptive and fast-moving theme.

ABB
Accenture
Advanced Machine Intelligence
Advantech
Agilex
Agility Robotics
Agtonomy
AIRoA
Alibaba
Alphabet
Amazon
AMD
Anduril
Apple
Applied Intuition
Apptronik
Arm
Arup
Astrobotic
AT&T
Atos
Aurora Innovation
Baidu
Bain & Company
Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center (X-Humanoid)
Bentley Systems
Bosch
Broadcom
ByteDance
Capgemini
Carbon Robotics
Caterpillar
Cerebras
Certis
Changi Airport Authority
Cisco
Cognizant
CoreWeave
CubeMars
Databricks
Dataiku
Deep Robotics
DeepSeek
Dell Technologies
Deloitte
Deutsche Telekom
DoorDash
Doosan Robotics
DXC Technology
Dyson
EY
FANUC
Figure AI
Foxconn (Hon Hai Technology Group)
Fractal Analytics
Franka Robotics
Fraunhofer Institutes
Fujitsu
GE Vernova
Genesis AI
Gigavision
GITAI
Harmonic Drive Systems
HCLTech
Hitachi
Honda
Honeywell
Horizon Robotics
Huawei
Hylio
Hyundai Motor Group
IBM
Infineon
Infosys
IntBot Robotics
Intel
Intelsat
Intrinsic
John Deere
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson Controls
Kawasaki Heavy Industries
KDDI
KPMG
KT
Kuaishou
Kubota
Kyndryl
Leju Robot
LG Electronics
LG Uplus
Lumen Technologies
Marvell Technology
McKinsey & Company
Mentee Robotics
Meta
Microchip Technology
Microsoft
Mistral AI
Mitsubishi Electric
Mobileye
ModelNova
Mujin
Nachi
NEC
Neuromeka
Nikon
NIQO Robotics
NTT
Nvidia
NXP Semiconductors
Ocado
Odyssey
Onsemi
OpenAI
Oracle
Orange
Orbbec
Ouster
Physical Intelligence
PhysicsX
Planet Farms
Plumerai
PwC
Qualcomm
Rainbow Robotics
Rapyuta Robotics
RealSense
Robot Phoenix
ROBOTIS
Salesforce
Samsung Electronics
Samsung SDS
SAP
Saronic
SAS
Scale AI
Schaeffler
Schneider Electric
SenseTime
Shield AI
Siemens
Singtel
SK Telecom
Skydio
Snowflake
SoftBank
Sony
SpaceX
STMicroelectronics
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Tech Mahindra
Telefonica
Tencent
Teradata
Tesla
Texas Instruments
Tieto
Tiger Analytics
TorqueAGI
Toyota Research Institute
Uber
Unitree Robotics
Unity
Verizon
Viasat
Vodafone
Waymo
Wayve
WeRide
Wing
Wipro
World Labs
XTEND
Yaskawa
Yijin Hardware
ZEDEDA
ZeroErr
Zipline
ZTE

Executive Summary

What is Physical AI?

The Physical AI Value Chain

The Brain of Physical AI

Geographic Trends

Physical AI Regulation

Industry Case Studies

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Physical AI: Strategic Intelligence

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