51乱伦

The Humanoid Moment

Humanoid robots have long been cast as tireless helpers in science fiction but the real contest to build them has begun. This week 1X opened pre-orders for NEO, billed as the first consumer ready humanoid at about $20,000. The catch is capability. NEO still needs human assistance. Owners can schedule an operator at 1X to don a VR headset and guide NEO through unfamiliar tasks so that it can learn. That model may be a stepping stone to autonomy, yet for now it looks like a pricey and inefficient substitute for hiring a housekeeper. Separately Foxconn, the world鈥檚 largest electronics manufacturer and a key producer of Nvidia鈥檚 AI servers announced that it will deploy humanoid robots at its Houston AI server plant.  Other companies are already deploying these types of robots, with a particular focus on industrial settings. Carmakers such as Audi, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz, as well as China鈥檚 Zeekr, have piloted humanoids on shop floors. Amazon is trialling them in warehouses.

More than 160 firms are developing human shaped machines, Morgan Stanley predicts 13 million humanoid robots will work alongside humans by 2035. Goldman Sachs reckons the market could reach $38 billion within the next decade, a prospect buoyed by falling costs and rapid advances in AI, perception, and actuation. The UK wants a place in this race. In September, London-based Humanoid unveiled what it calls the UK鈥檚 first industrial humanoid.

Beyond industrial settings, deployments in hospitals, care homes, offices and homes are plausible. Potential implications for real estate include the need for designated charging zones, swap-and-service bays, and safe navigation routes. New roles will appear, from field engineers who keep fleets running to supervisors who orchestrate mixed teams of people and robots.

From Gulf to Growth

Another week, another influx of capital for the UK. This time it is a £6.4 billion package linked to Saudi Arabia. It includes up to £5 billion in financing support from UK Export Finance for projects in the kingdom, intended to unlock supply contracts for British firms, and a new Barclays regional headquarters in Riyadh. Other headline deals include a £37 million investment by Saudi cybersecurity group Cipher to open its European office in London, and £75 million from Saudi investors and bankers into the British digital bank Vemi. The trade mission also showcased UK strengths, not least the Oxford-Cambridge Arc.

The Research Multiplier

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology confirmed the allocation of its £55 billion research and development funding for its associated research agencies and bodies. Alongside the announcement was analysis that states that every £1 of public investment in R&D returns £8 in net economic benefits over the long term. Crowding in private investment is a key part of this, with every £1 of public money invested in R&D crowding in a further £2 in private investment, on average.

Funding confirmed includes: 

• UKRI, will deliver more than £38 billion across the period, including nearly £10 billion in 2029/2030 alone.
• The budget for ARIA to rise from £220 million a year to £400 million a year by 2029/2030. One area that ARIA is supporting, is how robots could potentially help meet the growing need for adult social care.
• Over £1.4 billion total backing for the Met Office, to keep the UK at the forefront of climate science.
• Over £550 million for the National Measurement System, and £240 million for the AI Security Institute.

Supercomputing the Pipeline

Eli Lilly is teaming up with Nvidia to build the industry鈥檚 most powerful AI supercomputer to speed up drug discovery and development.  This 鈥淎I factory鈥� will manage the entire pipeline from data ingestion to model training. The Lilly supercomputer will run on more than 1,000 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs and it will be powered entirely by renewable energy. By building its own infrastructure Lilly aims to negate any potential geopolitical risks while also maintaining control of its data.  The collaboration underscores the momentum behind AI-powered drug discovery and development. It also provides further evidence of the increasing role of tech companies in life sciences. On Thursday, Eli Lilly reported revenue of $17.6 billion, up 54% from the prior year and well ahead of analyst expectations.

Manchester Muscles Past Oxford

Pitchbooks analysis of private market activity (VC and PE) over the last ten years finds that Manchester has risen to third spot behind London and Cambridge. Now, Manchester PE and VC deal value combined sits at £9.8 billion, compared with £8.9 billion for Oxford. Oxford, however, remains one of the highest hubs for VC exit value.  Q3 UK VC deal value increased both year-on-year and sequentially, sitting at £4.8 billion. The largest deal in the quarter was unsurprisingly in AI, with Nscale鈥檚 £1.1 billion mega-round. By industry, IT gained the most share of deal value in the quarter, as energy and healthcare lost share.  Q3 2025 PE activity notably increased, sitting at £54.4 billion, a near-record high. As M&A multiples remain depressed year-on-year, corporate acquisition activity has continued to rise in 2025. In Q3, £35.4 billion of acquisition deal value was transacted, with B2C and healthcare sectors gaining the most share.

Recipe for Success: UK-US deal, faster adoption, value-based procurement, backing TechBio and Medtech

Giving evidence to MPs, Steve Bates of the Office for Life Sciences and Sir Patrick Vallance offered ministers a pathway to soothing big pharma鈥檚 concerns. A well-crafted UK鈥揢S accord could calm big pharma鈥檚 nerves by cutting tariff risk, clarifying pricing, and widening access to the US market. The US is the world鈥檚 richest arena by volume and by price. Preferential entry would lift UK firms and, just as crucial, signal that the UK is a serious place to do business. There is a price. Vallance cautioned that genuinely novel medicines are likely to command somewhat higher prices in the UK. The Treasury knows the fiscal weight such a shift would carry. While negotiations remain tight lipped, the mood music suggested a deal is feasible.

Two further themes mattered. First, not all life sciences are alike. MedTech follows different routes to market, with NICE and the MHRA shaping adoption through faster pathways and refreshed regulation. Industry confidence is tangible, not least in Convatec鈥檚 expansion in Manchester. Steve Bates referenced the potential of the UK鈥檚 TechBio sector. For real estate these are growth areas to stay close to. Second, ministers are rethinking how the NHS buys and adopts products. The direction of travel is value-based procurement, with twenty trusts already piloting models that pay for long term outcomes rather than the number on the invoice. The calculus could broaden to include societal gains, quicker returns to work and lower dependence on benefits. Firms will need to evidence these effects if they want scale inside the NHS which might mean more real-world evidence, closer partnerships with local authorities and testing in areas where such challenges exist. For those in real estate that offer operational support, either directly or through partnerships, how can you support such a shift? Under the new plan for the NHS, NICE will also be tasked with deciding what treatments are no longer providing value for money. One analysis had suggested 30% of the costs of treatment were no longer good value for money and in some areas such as heart failure lives could be saved by treating people earlier in the pathway.

The session focused on one change which is the single national formulary (SNF) for prescribing. Plans announced in the NHS plan include a new oversight board that will sequence products included in the formulary (list) based on clinical and cost effectiveness. GPs and other prescribers will be 鈥榚ncouraged鈥� to use products ranked highly in the SNF. Here the UK regulators are setting the pace and may become a template for others seeking outcome-based purchasing.

Other experts have also provided written evidence to the Science Committee. Cambridge University Health Partners and its allies argue that Britain鈥檚 life sciences success rests on tight public-private collaboration, continued investment in clusters and their academic institutions and a competitive commercial environment. The evidence references rival locations that are dangling rich incentives including three months鈥� rent free and paid relocation to Chinese biomedical parks, lower trial costs in Australia and data access advantage in the Middle East. The authors warn that excellence in research is not enough. Unless companies can also sell in the UK, and unless the broader commercial environment is competitive, the UK risks losing firms, breakthroughs, and growth. Their prescription is pragmatic, and NHS centred. First, turn the health service into a true innovation testbed. That means faster, lower cost routes to evaluate and adopt priority innovations, especially in prevention and automation, yielding productivity gains for the NHS as well as earlier access for patients. Second, improve industry access to high-quality NHS data under secure, trusted arrangements. Third, create a central innovation fund by earmarking a slice of rebates from the VPAG scheme. Fourth, pursue an 鈥渋nvest to save鈥� approach that raises the share of acute spend on drugs and devices where there is a demonstrable link to relieving pressure on acute services. Finally, align the system. Agree national priorities across regulators, NICE thresholds, funding streams and NHS implementation capacity, and reconstitute a cross-system body, akin to the Life Sciences Delivery Board, to bring government, the NHS, regulators, research councils, charities, and industry to one table to execute the life sciences strategy. In short, keep the UK鈥檚 research magnet strong, make the NHS the proving ground, and ensure firms can scale and sell at home. Otherwise, others will.

The Great AI Spend

Q3 reporting season is under way and the Magnificent Seven are opening their books. Big Tech is still pouring capital into AI. Google, Meta and Microsoft together spent almost $80 billion on AI infrastructure in the quarter.

The third quarter of 2025 saw most US tech giants post robust year-on-year revenue growth, powered in part by AI. Microsoft鈥檚 revenue jumped 18% from a year earlier to $77.7 billion, and Alphabet reported $102.3 billion in quarterly sales.  Profitability was a mixed picture. Alphabet and Microsoft beat earnings expectations. Meta鈥檚 bottom line, however, with hit was a tax charge that caused net income to fall to $2.7 billion.  Tesla walked away with $1.4 billion in profit, a 37% drop from the same period last year.

A clear theme was the continued ramp up in capex. Meta signalled higher AI spending, which could top $100 billion next year. Microsoft reported capex at $35 billion in the quarter, a 74% increase year-on-year and $5 billion more than expected.   Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company鈥檚 total AI capacity would grow by over 80% this year with its data centre footprint doubling over the next two years. Alphabet increased its 2025 spending guidance for AI data centres to $92 billion, up from $85 billion previously. The company expects a 鈥渟ignificant increase鈥� in this spending next year.

Firms are also investing heavily in R&D. Meta reported a rise in R&D costs, which accounted for 30% of revenue, the highest level in more than two years. Tesla鈥檚 operating expenses jumped 50% as it poured resources into AI-driven R&D projects like autonomous vehicles.  

Notable AI arms suppliers are performing well. Nvidia CEO announced a flurry of partnerships and said he expects $500 billion in new AI chip orders through next year. It became the first company in the world to reach a market cap of $5 trillion.

The frenetic pace of AI spending has raised the question of whether this is an AI bubble. Here market watchers are divided. One the one hand Q3 earnings confirm real, growing demand. Yet signs of exuberance abound. A recent Bank of America survey found 54% of fund managers believe AI stocks are in a bubble. Sceptics also point to the web of circular investments which can inflate the appearance of AI driven growth.  Many experts contend that if there is an AI bubble, its bursting would be less catastrophic than past crashes as the surge isn鈥檛 based on excessive borrowing and the long-term promise of AI means that today鈥檚 capex will eventually generation proportional returns. Jeff Bezos noted that while AI excitement is funding plenty of dubious ideas, the shakeout could benefit society by surfacing truly valuable innovations once the 鈥渉ype bubble鈥� subsides.

Other reads

• Lonza provided a qualitative update for its Q3 2025 performance, emphasising a strong outcome in its Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) business and confirming its outlook for the remainder of the year. Positively, the company anticipates sales growth of 20% to 21% at constant exchange rates and an improved core EBITDA margin between 30% and 31% for the full year. The performance in Integrated Biologics contributed significantly. Lonza announced multiple significant contracts across its business lines, illustrating positive customer engagement and demand for their integrated services
  
  
• The UK Treasury appointed its first 鈥渆nvoy鈥� dedicated to northern growth. Tom Riordan will work with mayors and ministers to create an inter-city 鈥済rowth corridor鈥� like the Ox-Cam Arc.
  
  
• An article in the FT tracks the relentless rise of China鈥檚 biotech鈥檚 noting that there have been 93 overseas licensing deals in the first eight months of the year. Beijing introduced reforms in the mid-2010s to make it easier for biotech companies to raise capital and pursue innovation. This and the relative lower cost of doing drug development and clinical trials have accelerated growth.  However low domestic drug prices have forced companies to look elsewhere to recoup investment.
  
  
• GSK delivered sales of £8.5 billion in Q3, up 8%. R&D expenses totalled 19.8% of sales.  Full analysis of big pharma鈥檚 results in next week鈥檚 note.
  
  
• Synthesia valued at $4 billion after raising £151.7 million. A valuation of $4bn would place the company close to the most valuable AI businesses in the country, surpassing autonomous driving software firm Wayve.