There’s no shortage of anxious chatter across global markets about whether we’re living through another AI bubble.
We are. And bubbles, by definition, don’t feel like bubbles until they burst.
Today’s AI investments seem impossibly large compared to the profits they generate. Yet investors continue to pour in, hoping to catch the final wave of returns—knowing full well that perfectly timing an exit is impossible.
But bubbles, for all their chaos, have historically served a purpose. They leave behind infrastructure, technology, and capabilities that reshape civilisation long after the speculative frenzy ends.
- The dot-com bubble gave us the modern internet.
- The railroad bubble left America with continental railways.
- Japan’s real-estate bubble of the 1980s left world-class architectural marvels.
- Tulip mania left… flowers. But you get the point.
The AI bubble will leave us with artificial intelligence — and, crucially, humanoid robots.
And humanoids introduce a deeper, stranger, and more economically disruptive dilemma than any technological leap since the invention of the wheel.
The Coming Humanoid Era: Labour You Can Own, Not Employ
We’re no longer talking about chatbots or digital assistants.
Across the world, a race is underway to build humanoid robots that can walk, talk, reason, lift, carry, fetch, stack, cook, clean, assemble, drive, and operate seamlessly in human environments.
At least a dozen companies—from Tesla to UBTECH to Agility Robotics—are building machines that signal a new era of labour:
Labour that is considered capital. Not employees. Not staff. Assets.
Humanoids represent the return of chattel labour—labour that can be owned, controlled, and scaled, without negotiations, rights, resistance, or rest.
We don’t call it “slavery” because they’re machines, but economically, the relationship is identical.
And this isn’t theoretical.
Humanoid Robot Shipments Have Already Begun
In 2024, UBTECH Robotics (China) began large-scale shipments of its Walker S2 humanoids—hundreds of units—to automotive and logistics clients like:
- BYD
- Geely Auto
- FAW-Volkswagen
- Dongfeng Liuzhou Motor
- Foxconn
Their order pipeline: 800 million yuan (~$173 million).
The Walker S2 can swap its own battery, autonomously, ensuring zero downtime.
This is not science fiction.
This is already happening.
On YouTube, you’ll find humanoids:
- walking on uneven terrain
- dancing
- doing housework
- cooking
- gardening
- assembling goods
- marching in formations that resemble scenes from I, Robot
Some even have hyper-realistic faces—especially female designs—clearly built for the future “robot companion” market.
Challenges like bipedal stability and dexterous hands?
Not fully solved—but solved enough to enter production.
Shadow Robot (UK) recently unveiled a 24-joint hand with 20 motors that can pick up a pencil.
Elon Musk claims Tesla’s Optimus will become an “incredible surgeon.”
Not everyone agrees. Robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks says humanoid dexterity is decades away. But the world’s capitalists are carpet-bombing the problem with money, and progress is accelerating.
A Return to the Oldest Economic Model in Human History
Here’s the part no one wants to say out loud:
Humanoid robots bring back the economic power structure of slavery — without humans.
For 7,000 years of recorded commerce, slavery and forced labour formed the backbone of global economies:
- Egyptian civilization
- Greek and Roman empires
- The British Empire
- The American South
The modern world has been without slave labour for less than 3% of human economic history.
And even after slavery was abolished, employers tried to recreate it in other forms:
- child labour
- 14-hour workdays
- brutal workplace exploitation
It took Marx, union movements, strikes, revolutions, and laws like Australia’s 1907 Harvester Judgement to force employers to treat workers as humans instead of expendable inputs.
But humanoid robots re-open a dormant possibility:
A labour force that never sleeps, never strikes, never demands, never gets sick, never resigns.
They are capex, not opex.
They are assets, not staff.
They are property, not people.
Economically, they reintroduce the temptations of the ancient world — at industrial scale.
The Price of a Robot ≈ The Price of an Enslaved Person in the 18th Century
This comparison is provocative, but historically accurate:
- The price of an enslaved African in the West Indies in the 1700s (adjusted for inflation): $50,000–$100,000
- The projected cost of a humanoid robot in 2026–2028: $50,000–$100,000
And like all technologies, that price will drop rapidly as manufacturing scales.
What happens when every warehouse, factory, farm, retailer, and household can buy human-like labour for $20,000?
We’re about to find out.
The Economic Dilemma at the Heart of Humanoid Robots
Humanoid robots represent the first technology in history that competes directly with human physical presence, not just productivity.
Machines have replaced tasks before.
But humanoids replace roles.
A few years from now, every employer will face a decision:
- Hire a human…
- Or buy a humanoid that does the same job 24/7?
For the first time in history, capital can acquire labour in physical form — without social cost, political resistance, or ethical friction.
This is not the automation debate of the 1990s, nor the outsourcing debates of the 2000s.
This is something unprecedented.
It will transform:
- labour markets
- wage structures
- unemployment
- immigration
- education
- social contracts
- government policy
- tax systems
- retirement models
Humanoid robots aren't just another automation wave.
They are the end of labour as we define it today.
The Question No One Is Prepared For
Humanoid robots force society to confront an uncomfortable question:
What happens to an economy when labour becomes property again — but this time, the “slaves” are machines?
This is a dilemma with no historical parallel.
We’ve never had to maintain human dignity in a world where human-like labour is cheaper, more obedient, and infinitely scalable.
The AI bubble will eventually deflate.
But what it leaves behind — an army of humanoid workers — might reshape civilisation more profoundly than electricity, the steam engine, or the internet.
The bubble isn’t the story.
The aftermath is.