Automation & robotics

Besides the traditional business in the white goods segment, Sanhua has also been successful in develo- ping the electric car and robotics segments.

The company also sells connectors into a broad array of industrial end markets such as factory automation, clean energy, and data centres.

Alongside this core franchise it runs a Product Test group (electronics, defence/aerospace, and the acquired Quantifi Photonics), and a Robotics arm built around Universal Robots cobots (collaborative robots) and mobile solutions positioned as "physical AI".

Once Applied is designing fluid power systems, integrating robotics, or managing a customer's critical equipment, switching costs rise sharply, and the relationship becomes structurally recurring.

On the supply side, advanced industrial production is thriving, surging by 5.4%, driven by double-digit spikes in high-tech manufacturing, electric vehicles, lithium batteries, and industrial robotics.

Rockwell Automation (ROK) ● Business: Rockwell Automation (NYSE: ROK) is a leading provider of industrial automation and digital transformation solutions.

The results, along with early diversification into data centre and robotics applications, prompted a broader re-rating across European analogue semiconductors.

One example is Japan’s Harmonic Drive Systems, a supplier to robotics companies.

At the same time, more localized themes, including the recovery in China’s memory industry and the development of domestic robotics supply chains, broadened the opportunity set.

We have a few ongoing opportunistic trades that we hope will also end well for us: Agility Robotics announced its intended merger with Churchill Capital XI (CCXI), which would make it the first publicly traded humanoid robotics company.

Recent results reflected accelerating revenue growth across all major geographies, supported by increasing demand for automation, robotics and AI- related manufacturing applications.

One of our newer investments in this area is a global leader in factory automation controllers, sensors and systems that we believe is poised to benefit from a wave of restructuring in Japan.

Transformative secular trends—such as AI; space exploration and technology; autonomous transportation; robotics; digital commerce, media, and finance; advanced therapeutics and minimally invasive surgery—will shape the future and drive long-term investment returns.

Market Outlook The proliferation of Chinese exports continues in areas including green technology, autos, robotics, and (increasingly) AI tokens.

Energy Storage The CEO of Tianqi Lithium, one of China's largest producers, set out a constructive case for long-term lithium demand, arguing that most forecasts understate the trajectory by assuming 95% of incremental demand comes from EVs and BESS, and missing emerging sources including electrified trucks, mining equipment, ships, data centres and robotics.

Accelerators were initially used to power desktop computer graphics but as Moore’s Law has slowed, accelerated computing has emerged as a solution, enabling researchers to continue to push the boundaries in fields such as AI, climate simulation, drug discovery, ray tracing, and robotics.

Whenever an application becomes smarter or more electronic, from factory automation systems and EV powertrains to broadband networks, Amphenol's content per unit naturally increases, creating a persistent flywheel of organic growth.

Now the company is using AI to expand into welding, a technically more difficult area of factory automation with a notoriously steep learning curve, especially in heavier industries like structural steel production and shipbuilding.

Benefiting from a cyclical recovery in global factory automation and capital expenditure, particularly in Asia, MISUMI Group, a distributor of factory-automation components, gained 49%.

Transformative secular trends—such as AI; space exploration and technology; autonomous transportation; robotics; digital commerce, media, finance; advanced therapeutics and minimally invasive surgery—will shape the future and drive long-term investment returns.

The quarter also reflected a widening divide between “hot” and “cold” parts of the North American economy: AI infrastructure, power, defense, robotics and related capex areas attracted strong investor appetite, while Canada’s economy was weak enough to temporarily enter a technical recession, with real GDP essentially flat in the first quarter after contracting in the fourth quarter of 2025.

ADI has exposure to data centers, automated test equipment, aerospace and defense, industrial automation, and automobile electrification.

Increasingly, the beneficiaries are being found throughout the broader ecosystem: semiconductor equipment providers, industrial automation companies, power infrastructure suppliers and businesses helping organizations improve productivity and efficiency.

If you haven’t had AI exposure in your portfolio, you may feel like this poor kid in China who was at the wrong end of a roundhouse from a clown-wig wearing humanoid robot performing a martial arts demonstration.

During Q2, we realized short positions in Fermi (FRMI), Richtech Robotics (RR), Gemini Space Station (GEMI), Sweetgreen (SG), X-Energy (XE), Carvana (CVNA), POET Technologies (POET), and Chipotle Mexican Grill (CMG) as a quick trade.

We initiated Oceaneering International (OII), a leader in subsea robotics and offshore services, as offshore and subsea capital spending emerges from a seven-year drought and the U.S. rig count climbs; the position was funded in part by our exit of natural gas producer CNX Resources (CNX).

Despite improving truck demand, a recovery in factory automation, and fiscal spending underway in Germany, an inflection in tangible orders reflective of these tailwinds are likely to materialize in the second half of the year.

They are positioned as a vendor of choice to help solve complex technical problems within electric vehicle power management, advanced driver assistance, industrial automation, datacenter power management and renewable energy deployment.

In that very same commentary we featured Google, we gave a brief shout-out to Amazon’s opportunity to thrive in building the “application layer” of AI by deploying smart orchestration across the retail business’ robotics and logistics layers.