Interest in robotics companies has picked up since Nvidia (NVDA) Chief Executive Jensen Huang proclaimed that "the robotics era is just around the corner" in January during his keynote speech at CES 2025. But for now there's a dearth of investable robotics stocks. That's likely to change as artificial intelligence gives robots the ability to move about safely with humans everywhere people go.

Richtech Robotics (RR) hopes to lead in the coming "robotics era." The Las Vegas-based company makes commercial and industrial robots for delivery and cleaning as well as food and beverage service for bars and restaurants.

"We are seeing a lot of enthusiasm around our delivery products, which are the most mature of our product line," Richtech President Matt Casella told Investor's Business Daily.

Richtech Robotics Products

It's a pretty impressive lineup.

Richtech Robotics offers a robot called Medbot for medical deliveries within hospitals and another called Titan for ferrying heavy payloads in automotive service departments and other locations. It also has a robot called Matradee Plus for carrying meals in restaurants from the kitchen to a customer's table.

To date, Richtech has deployed more than 300 robots across the U.S. It also makes heavy-duty floor-cleaning robots.

The newest robots from Richtech are beverage-serving robots for restaurants and bars. They include Adam, a two-armed robot that can interact with customers while it makes coffee, boba tea and other drinks. A newer product is the Scorpion robot bartender and mixologist.

Targeting Bigger Contracts

Richtech is targeting bigger contracts with larger deployments of its AI-enabled robots in the year ahead, Casella said.

Many potential enterprise customers have taken a "wait-and-see attitude" to robotic solutions, he said. "We're at a point now where we have the proof points and the case studies and more importantly we've got robots out in the world working. So this is not just a research project any more. We've moved far beyond that. We're ramped up and ready to start to deploy significant numbers of robots in the coming months and years."

He added, "The next wave of this robotics revolution starts to become powerful when people understand that this is not going to be a severely disruptive change to your existing operation procedure. But it's going to be a seamless installation and integration into how you are working today. And it's going to have significant added benefits."

Zeno Mercer, research lead for the Robo Global Index Series at VettaFi, told IBD that he sees a ramp for robotics over the next five years. The technology is transitioning from what is technologically feasible to what makes practical business sense, he said.

Humanoid Robots

One area of investment by tech giants like Tesla (TSLA) has been in humanoid robots. But not all robots need two arms and two legs to get the job done, he said.

Meanwhile, robotics investments will expand from self-driving cars to other autonomous mobile robots, Mercer said.

Richtech and Serve Robotics (SERV) are "examples of companies that are in the early innings," Mercer said. "But there's not many of them right now. There will be more."

The best example of a successful robotics company today is Intuitive Surgical (ISRG), a maker of surgical robots, Mercer said.

"It's done very well and it's one of the best performers in our Robo robotics index," he said. "It's a great example of what's to come of companies that start to nail specific niches and even general robotics in the real world."

Race With China

One unanswered question is what role companies currently involved in industrial automation will play as robots leave the factory floor and mingle with humans, Mercer said. Such old-school automation companies include ABB (ABBNY), Rockwell Automation (ROK) and Siemens (SIEGY).

In addition to robot makers, there will be opportunities for companies that provide processors, sensors, computer vision and AI smarts, Mercer said. For instance, Nvidia processors are used by Richtech and Serve Robotics, among many others.

And just like with artificial intelligence, the U.S. may find itself in a race with China to develop robotics technology. That could prompt Washington to take action that would encourage domestic production of robots, Mercer said.

Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.

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