Recently, at the Davos Forum, some of the latest developments in the AI and robotics industry are worth paying attention to.

**Accelerated Deployment of Robots and Automation**

Optimus humanoid robots are already working in factories, currently performing relatively simple tasks. By the second half of this year, the complexity will gradually increase. Interestingly, this robot is planned to be available to the public by 2027. If safety standards are met, large-scale industrial deployment could follow.

In the long term, the goal is to produce hundreds of millions of humanoid robots—outnumbering humans on Earth. These robots will take over heavy labor and caregiving tasks, from elderly care and childcare to various physical jobs. This sounds somewhat like depicting a "prosperous era"—where machines and artificial intelligence jointly create the greatest prosperity in history.

In terms of autonomous driving, Robotaxi services are already operating in some cities. According to plans, by the end of this year, major US cities should see widespread adoption of this service. The regulatory version of FSD is expected to be approved in Europe next month, with a similar timeline for the Chinese market.

**The Energy Crisis is the Real Bottleneck**

A core issue has emerged: electricity, not chips.

Currently, chip production capacity is growing at a rate 4% faster per year than electricity capacity. In other words, the most severe limitations on AI deployment in the future will not be computing power but energy supply. This is a genuine contradiction.

The solar energy industry is also accelerating. Due to US tariffs increasing deployment costs, and China’s massive solar construction scale, related teams are pushing for local US solar capacity, aiming for 100GW annually. At this pace, it could be achieved in about three years. There’s a saying that just one 100-mile×100-mile solar panel array could power the entire US. It sounds exaggerated, but it reflects the enormous potential of solar energy.

**Space as the Future Energy Sanctuary**

SpaceX’s ambitions are even greater. This year, the focus is on verifying the full reusability of Starship—which could reduce launch costs by about 100 times, eventually lower than air freight costs. There will be a "major launch" in 2026 mainly to prepare for the next-generation Starlink satellites.

An even more aggressive plan involves deploying space-based solar energy AI satellites. Solar energy efficiency in space is five times higher than on Earth. This means that in a few years, the lowest-cost deployment of AI might not be on Earth—but in space. It’s expected that within 2-3 years, space will become the lowest-cost location for AI. There are even plans to build solar energy AI data centers in space to completely solve the power bottleneck on Earth.

**The Accelerating Evolution of AI**

The pace of AI progress is almost frightening. According to predictions, by the end of this year or at the latest next year, AI’s intelligence will surpass that of any individual human. By 2030-2031, collective AI intelligence could surpass all of humanity combined.

The combination of AI and robots is the key pathway to that "prosperous era." Robots will gradually take over all physical work and caregiving tasks, making human work increasingly optional.

Therefore, the real limitation is not technological capability but energy—ranging from the solar revolution on Earth to breakthroughs in space energy. The entire industry chain is being reconstructed around this core issue. Whoever solves the energy bottleneck first will hold the key to the future.