Reshoring the Robot: Sovereignty, Fabs, and the Physical AI Stack— with Duncan Turner & David Ordonez

​Robotics is scaling just as the logic of global supply chains breaks down. Geopolitical dislocation and rising fragility are turning robotics from a cost question into strategic infrastructure that nations feel they must build themselves.

​This panel maps the sovereign spine of the robotics value chain. The dependencies stack up fast: rare-earth magnets in every actuator, and an inference-heavy stack that makes advanced semiconductor fabrication a binding constraint and concentration risk. The recent drone supply chain scramble shows how quickly dependence becomes vulnerability. Meanwhile, shrinking working-age populations make the demand to automate structural, not cyclical.

​We'll weigh where real sovereign opportunity lies — batteries, compute, quantum sensing — and confront the economics: sovereign supply chains cost more. Is that a premium buyers will pay, or a tax that kills adoption? Sovereignty can't repeat the green-premium trap; it needs a step change that wins on merit, not principle.

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​Speakers:

​Duncan Turner — General Partner & Managing Director, HAX (SOSV).

​David Ordonez — Senior Associate, NATO Innovation Fund.