Amazon could have more robots than humans by 2030
Cathie Wood, Managing Director and Chief Investment Officer, Ark Invest gestures as she speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.
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According to Cathie Wood of Ark Invest, the growth of workplace automation will accelerate this decade, with robot workers possibly overtaking human employees at one of the world’s largest companies.
AmazonThe use of automated robots will dramatically change the company’s workforce in the coming years, the portfolio manager said Wednesday.
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“Amazon is adding about a thousand robots a day. … If you compare the number of Amazon robots to the number of employees, it’s about a third. And we believe that by 2030, Amazon may have more robots than employees,” Wood said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
“So we are only at the dawn of the era of robotics. And I would say that artificial intelligence and battery technology are also part of this movement,” she added.
The robotics revolution will not be limited to Amazon; it will spread throughout manufacturing, Wood said, as improved technology and lower costs accelerate the transition.
“If you look at the cost reductions, which drive all of our models…for every cumulative doubling of the number of robots produced, the cost reductions are in the order of 50-60%,” she said.
Amazon had more than 1.6 million workers at the end of 2021, according to its latest annual report. The company is expected to release its fourth quarter results on Thursday.
However, like many other tech companies, Amazon has started laying off workers in recent months. Amazon announced more than 18,000 job cuts in January, although that leaves the company still well above its pre-pandemic employee level.
Wood’s bets on new technology made her a star investor in 2020, when the Fed cut interest rates and domestic boom work fueled interest in high-growth tech stocks. Some of those stocks are back in favor, like Wood’s Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK) just finished its best month ever, with a 27.8% increase in January.
However, the rally made only a small dent in the fund’s losses over the past two years. The ETF is still more than 70% below its February 2021 peak.
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