AgiBot Overtakes Unitree as World's Top Humanoid Robot Vendor
Chinese robotics maker AgiBot shipped more humanoid robots than rival Unitree in the first half of 2026, a new market report found, as both firms race toward competing IPOs.
Read more →AI Robotics
AI is transforming robotics, enabling machines to perceive, reason, and act with unprecedented flexibility. This hub tracks AI-driven robots — from warehouse automation and humanoid machines to surgical and agricultural systems — along with the companies and research institutes pushing the field forward.
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Xiaomi Open-Sources Robotics-1, a 100,000-Hour-Trained Robot Model
Xiaomi released the code and checkpoints for Xiaomi-Robotics-1, a vision-language-action model it says tops several robot-manipulation benchmarks, under an Apache 2.0 license.
Read more →Reimagine Robotics Launches Robots Trained by Demonstration
Reimagine Robotics, founded by former Google DeepMind Applied Robotics leaders, emerged from stealth with a platform that lets factory workers train robots by demonstration instead of code.
Read more →Google DeepMind Launches Gemini Robotics 2 for Whole-Body Control
Google DeepMind's new Gemini Robotics 2 models let humanoid robots coordinate full-body movement, plan multi-step tasks and work together, shown on Apptronik's Apollo 2.
Read more →Google DeepMind Launches Gemini Robotics ER 2 With Video Understanding
Google DeepMind unveiled Gemini Robotics ER 2, an embodied-reasoning model that lets robots parse live video, track task progress and coordinate with each other in real time.
Read more →FCC Bars New Chinese Humanoid Robots, Power Inverters From US
The US FCC added foreign-made humanoid and quadruped robots, plus power inverters, to its national-security 'Covered List,' blocking new import approvals over spying and cyberattack risks.
Read more →Travis Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B for Physical AI Robots
Travis Kalanick's robotics venture Atoms raised $1.7 billion in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, with Uber — the company that ousted him as CEO in 2017 — joining as an investor.
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What Is a System-on-Module — and Why Do AI Robots Run on One?
A system-on-module packs a processor, memory, and networking onto one small board. Here's what it is, how it works, and why robotics and edge-AI makers build on top of one instead of a raw chip.
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What Is an FPGA — and How Is It Different From a GPU?
FPGAs are chips that can be rewired after manufacturing. Here's what that means, how they compare to GPUs and ASICs, and why AI and robotics hardware increasingly relies on them.
Read more →Black Forest Labs Launches FLUX 3, a Multimodal AI Model
German AI startup Black Forest Labs released FLUX 3 in early access on July 23, its first model trained to generate images, video, and audio together — and to power robot movement.
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What Is Edge AI — and How Does It Power Robots?
Edge AI runs directly on robots, cameras, and machines instead of in the cloud, cutting reaction time from hundreds of milliseconds to microseconds.
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What Is a Vision-Language-Action (VLA) Model — and Why It Matters
A vision-language-action (VLA) model turns a camera feed and a plain instruction directly into a robot's movements, replacing separate perception and control systems with one model.
Read more →AMD Unveils Kria AI Platform to Challenge Nvidia in Robotics
AMD launched a Kria AI system-on-module and robotics developer platform for physical AI, claiming faster real-time control than Nvidia's Jetson Thor chips.
Read more →UK Robotics Startup Humanoid Raises $152M, Hits $1.35B Valuation
London-based Humanoid raised $152 million at a $1.35 billion valuation, becoming Europe's first pure-play humanoid robotics unicorn as Fortune 500 clients scale up deployments.
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What Is a Pre-IPO Round — and Why Do AI Startups Raise Them?
A pre-IPO round is the last private financing a company raises before listing publicly. Here's how it works, who invests, and why AI and robotics startups are racing to raise them.
Read more →LimX Dynamics Raises $200M Pre-IPO, Eyes Public Listing
Shenzhen humanoid-robot maker LimX Dynamics closed a nearly $200 million pre-IPO round on July 14, valuing it at about $2.1 billion as it pushes toward a stock listing.
Read more →Toyota-Backed Walden Robotics Raises $300M, Hits $1.1B Valuation
Walden Robotics, a robotics startup spun out of Toyota's research lab, emerged from stealth with $300 million in seed funding and a $1.1 billion valuation, backed by Toyota and Nvidia.
Read more →NVIDIA Enlists Japan's Robotics Giants for Physical AI Push
NVIDIA said more than 20 Japanese manufacturers and robotics firms, including FANUC, Sony and SoftBank, are building on its Cosmos world-model platform for real-world AI.
Read more →Nvidia, Japan Unveil National AI Factory With 27,500 Rubin GPUs
Japan's government and a 44-company consortium called Noetra partnered with Nvidia to build a 140-megawatt AI factory powering open foundation models for robotics and manufacturing.
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What Is Defense AI — and Why Is It Attracting Billions in Funding?
Defense AI fuses battlefield sensor data and guides autonomous drones — and it is now one of the fastest-growing corners of venture investment in Europe and the US.
Read more →European Defense AI Startup Helsing Raises $1.8B at $18B Valuation
German defense-AI company Helsing raised $1.8 billion in a Series E round, valuing it at $18 billion — Europe's largest-ever defense-startup funding round.
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