The race is on to make humanoid robots. Elon Musk announced Wednesday that Tesla is shutting down production of two electric car models and converting a California plant to build the Optimus robot . But while Tesla tries to get up to speed, rivals in China have already ramped up deliveries and entered talks for global partnerships in humanoid development . The result is growing demand for parts. “Component suppliers will be first to profit from the industry’s nascent growth,” Morgan Stanley analysts said in a Jan. 21 report, ahead of Musk’s announcement. Production over sales “Production is likely to be materially larger than sales at this stage,” the investment bank’s analysts said, “as the major players are producing robots internally for training and verification, indicating the component market could reach scalable production earlier than previously thought.” Shanghai-listed Leaderdrive, one of Morgan Stanley’s preferred humanoid parts stocks, closed more than 7.5% higher Friday after slight gains Thursday. The robotics company late Thursday preannounced that 2025 net profit more than doubled to at least 58.8 million yuan ($8.46 million). Leaderdrive said in a filing that in the “smart robot” sector, leading clients are moving from the research stage to small-scale production, adding that that it is deepening talks with unnamed overseas partners. “Leaderdrive is expected to benefit most from hum …
