Independent research on the Physical AI stack and supply chain.
Core Matter is a research practice on the full Physical AI stack and supply chain, published as a newsletter. It covers the companies, components, and economics building robotics and intelligent machines.
Coverage
Where durable value accrues across the stack.
Components to deployment.
Actuators, sensors, compute and power, manufacturing, and the companies putting Physical AI into real operations. The unit of analysis is the stack and its supply chain.
What generalist coverage misses.
Most coverage stops at the labs and the product launches. The economics, the components, and the manufacturing layer underneath go uncovered. That's the gap.
Down to the bill of materials.
Company trackers, cost and BOM models, and supply-chain exposure maps, built from primary-source interviews and original filings.
17,000 humanoids shipped last year. Almost none went to work.
Report · June 2026
A read of China’s humanoid IPO filings (Unitree, UBTech) for the first audited answers on who ships, who buys, and who profits. The next one lands in the newsletter.
Written by
Michelle Sun
San Francisco ↔ Shenzhen
Michelle Sun is an investor and builder focused on Physical AI across San Francisco and Shenzhen. She angel invests in and advises early-stage teams in robotics, manufacturing, and frontier AI infrastructure.
She previously analyzed technology, media, and telecom companies at Goldman Sachs, led developer ecosystem work at the Solana Foundation, and has advised MIT CSAIL since 2017. Earlier she founded First Code Academy, a coding education company that operated across five markets in Asia. She is trilingual in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, and a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree.
Core Matter is the research practice behind that work, tracking where durable value accrues across the Physical AI stack with the analytical depth the field rarely gets.
Every Friday, from across the Physical AI stack.
Company notes, supply-chain teardowns, and the analysis that matters for anyone investing in or building around Physical AI.
Diligence and advisory on specific companies and supply-chain exposure. hello@corematterlabs.co →