Skild AI, a Pittsburgh-based startup, has raised a monumental $1.4 billion to develop a universal “omni-bodied” AI brain for robots. The Skild Brain model can adapt in real-time to control any robot hardware, aiming to power everything from manufacturing bots to future home assistants.
Shenzhen’s X Square Robot, led by CEO Wang Qian, raised $140M to develop embodied AI foundation models—a “robot brain” for the physical world. Its WALL-A system and Quanta X1 robot demonstrate zero-shot generalization in complex tasks.
UK-based Humanoid and German industrial leader Schaeffler AG have launched a five-year strategic partnership to integrate hundreds of humanoid robots into manufacturing. The collaboration spans beta testing, RaaS models, co-developed actuators, and shared AI data to enable scalable industrial automation.
Shanghai-based AGIBOT stormed CES 2026 as the new global humanoid robot leader, having shipped over 5,100 units for a 39% market share in 2025. Dr. Yao Maoqing outlined a vision for an embodied intelligence ecosystem, backed by new simulation and fleet-learning software announced at the show.
South Korean company TESOLLO Inc. has launched the DG-5F-S, a compact robotic hand built with its own proprietary actuators. Weighing under 1 kg and priced 40% lower than its flagship, it’s designed to be the affordable, high-dexterity solution accelerating humanoid robot commercialization.
Schaeffler AG, the German motion technology giant, is partnering with robotics startup Humanoid to deploy hundreds of humanoid robots in its factories over five years. The deal includes actuator supply, AI training, and a clear path from beta testing in 2026 to full-scale robot-as-a-service (RaaS) deployment.
Faced with the European Union’s stringent AI Act, the robotics industry must pivot from opaque “black box” neural networks to Artificial Integrated Cognition (AIC). This physics-based, transparent architecture is the only viable path to building certifiable, deployable robots for regulated markets, prioritizing explainability over raw performance.
Buildroid AI, a San Francisco startup, is bringing its simulation-first robotics platform to U.S. construction sites. Using NVIDIA Omniverse to simulate workflows, the system coordinates multiple robots for full trade sequences. With $2M in funding led by Tim Draper, it targets blockwork automation in a $13 billion market, promising a scalable alternative to single-task robots.
Chinese humanoid robot plays basketball with almost human-like accuracy. It dribbles, passes, and shoots smoothly after learning through thousands of
In a world-first, a robot from Shanghai MicroPort MedBot autonomously performed complex biliary surgery on a 30kg pig, completing 88% of steps on its first try. Powered by an AI trained on 3 billion parameters, it marks a major leap toward AI-driven surgical assistance.
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