I joked about doing a robot rental business here in the Bay Area, but just as it started taking off last year in China, it's already collapsed.
It is a great example of the entire Chinese tech cycle compressed into 12 months: scarcity → absurd returns → everyone piles in → supply explodes → price war → congratulations dude your “passive income asset” is now a depreciating robot nobody wants.
Here's ChatGPT's summary of the article I just read on robot rentals 🤣🤣🤣
"China in 2025: Buy a $14,000 humanoid robot. Rent it for $4,000/day. Congratulations, you’ve discovered infinite money.
China in 2026: 20,000 people have also discovered infinite money. JD rents one for $220/day. Another platform offers them for 14 cents for two hours.
Turns out the revolutionary new business model wasn’t “robotics-as-a-service.”
It was “being the only guy in town who owns a robot.”
Anyway, congratulations to everyone who became a robot landlord at the top of the market."