Will humanoid robot storage demand increase 20-fold in 5 years? Musk: Absurd, robot storage demand "exceeds everything," and superintelligence goes far beyond that

Counterpoint Research predicts that humanoid robot storage demand will increase 20-fold in five years, but Musk directly refuted this as "ridiculous," asserting that robots’ RAM demand will surpass everything else on Earth, and that superintelligence will require even more computing power than robots—this statement once again lifts the imagination around the humanoid robot storage sector to an entirely new level.

Meanwhile, storage chip giant Micron Technology has already identified humanoid robots as a key driver of future storage demand, placing them alongside autonomous vehicles, positioning them as the core incremental market for "physical AI" devices, and directly linking this demand to its existing high-bandwidth, high-capacity storage product lines.

Musk’s stance and Micron’s strategic positioning reinforce each other, jointly pointing to a market narrative taking shape: humanoid robots and the superintelligence behind them may become the core engines of the next wave of storage and computing power demand, with a scale potentially far beyond current market expectations.

Musk: Current Analysis is "Ridiculous", Robot RAM Demand Will Surpass Everything on Earth

On the 26th local time, @wallstengine posted on social platform X, stating that Counterpoint Research expects the DRAM demand for humanoid robots to surge 20-fold by 2030.

In response, Musk directly addressed the forecasts regarding humanoid robot storage demand, using strong language. He wrote: "Ridiculous analysis. Robots' RAM demand will surpass everything else on Earth, because you need robots to operate on the physical substrate in order to shape atoms."

The core logic behind this statement is: As actors in the physical world, humanoid robots need to sense, make decisions, and manipulate material in real environments—demanding structural and ongoing, rather than just marginal, increases in real-time computing and storage needs. Musk implies that quantifying humanoid robot storage demand as merely a "20-fold increase in five years" severely underestimates the true scale of this sector.

Even more noteworthy is that Musk further singled out Super Intelligence (SI), stating its needs "will far exceed robots", and added that approximately 100% of superintelligence computing power will be deployed to deep space compute. This projection stretches the ultimate imagination for storage and computing demand from Earth to the infrastructure level of outer space.

Micron Bets on Humanoid Robots, "Physical AI" Becomes the New Narrative Anchor

Against the backdrop of Musk's recent remarks, Micron Technology has taken the commercial lead in incorporating humanoid robots into its core strategic narrative.

According to Yahoo Finance, in its latest round of AI-related commentary, Micron’s management has explicitly marked humanoid robots as an important future source of storage demand, grouping them with autonomous vehicles under the emerging category of "physical AI devices". The company’s management relates this anticipated demand directly to its existing high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and high-capacity storage product lines, emphasizing that it does not need to develop completely new products—its current core products for AI servers and data centers can already accommodate the storage needs of humanoid robots.

The strategic significance of this positioning is: Humanoid robots are expected to use server-grade DRAM and storage solutions similar to those found in data centers and autonomous driving platforms. This means Micron can leverage its existing capacity and technological assets for this emerging end-market without massive capital restructuring.

Micron’s current overarching narrative heavily relies on AI and data center demand, tight supply-demand for DRAM and NAND, and high-margin cash flow supported by long-term customer agreements. Positioning humanoid robots as another outlet for server-grade storage is highly consistent with this narrative, but the actual rollout speed will still depend on whether Micron can continue executing advanced manufacturing processes and fill capacity tied to major capital expenditure plans.

For investors, current humanoid robot storage demand is still at the strategic positioning stage and has not yet made a measurable impact in financial data.

The most critical observation window in the near term will be Micron’s guidance for Q1 of its 2027 fiscal year. Management has already provided expectations for that quarter: revenue of about $61.5 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $37.84. The market will closely watch to see whether management provides updated specifics on the contribution of physical AI devices—including autonomous driving systems and early humanoid robot deployments—to these expectations, in order to judge how quickly this theme can actually translate into revenue.