I, Robot
Bradley Goldhar - May 26, 2023
The University of Waterloo is known as one of the top schools for engineering and you’ll be amazed by an amazing robotics business founded by two alumni (thanks to JW for mentioning it). Trajekt Sports manufactures a sophisticated robot now being used by the Chicago Cubs and some other Major League Baseball teams.
The robot can pitch up to 120 mph and simulates the actual pitches from major league pitchers using data collected by the league.
There is a tremendous amount of interest in the world of robotics and how artificial intelligence (AI) applications may be used to accelerate its development. This week, one of the companies helping fuel the development of AI is chipmaker NVIDIA* (NVDA) who announced blockbuster revenues and earnings. The shares gained more than 20% after the earnings release (adding close to US$200 billion to the market value of the company) (i). For the year, the shares are up approx. 160%, fully recovering last year’s 50% decline (i). If you want to track a group of companies focused on robotics and AI, there is the Global X Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF (BOTZ). BOTZ has gained more than 30% this year and NVIDIA is now the largest holding representing nearly 12% of the fund (i).
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Brad
Bradley Goldhar | Senior Portfolio Manager and Senior Investment Advisor