Robotics news 87 stories
The clock is ticking: Final 24 hours to exhibit at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ↗
Last day to book your exhibit table at Disrupt is today, September 18.
Robots are waiting for a ChatGPT moment: Nvidia’s Les Karpas explains why at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ↗
The robotics industry is still waiting for their breakthrough into day-to-day life.
Next wave of VCs judging Startup Battlefield 200 contenders at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 revealed ↗
Meet the next five top-tier investors judging the Startup Battlefield 200 contenders live at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026.
Mecka AI nears $500M valuation in Sequoia-led deal amid rush for robot training data ↗
The round for the two-year-old startup is coming together months after Mecka announced its Series A.
Maven Robotics wants to steal your robot deployment deal ↗
Maven Robotics emerged from stealth today with a $100 million Series A and active deployments.
XDOF, just 3 months out of stealth, is in talks for a Series B at a $1.2B valuation ↗
The round is being raised just months after the robot data startup exited from stealth.
Less than 24 hours to apply for your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Side Event ↗
Less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and make your mark in the Silicon Valley scene.
The Builders Stage brings practical strategies for scaling startups to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 ↗
The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt, bringing together founders, startup operators, and investors for practical conversations on what it takes to build and scale.
The US is building barriers around drones and robots, but China has scale to get around them ↗
The U.S. is shutting out more foreign-made drones and robots.
Chinese automakers are following Tesla’s bet that robots are the next big profit machine ↗
Technical progress has encouraged a new batch of companies to jump in on the promise of profits from humanoid robots.
Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open source duck robot, Microduck ↗
Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, said the Microduck is an “open-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning.”
Ex-Meta scientists want to bring visual AI to the factory floor ↗
Perceptron offers an AI model that it says can help machines navigate the world while also providing in-depth visual intelligence.
Robot brain builders are pushing out of their GPT-2 era ↗
Robot bodies are waiting for their AI brains to catch up.
Robotics startup Generalist reaches $3B valuation, sources say ↗
The $200 million extension comes just months after the physical AI startup reached a $2 billion valuation.
Northrop’s robot space mechanic is a new way to keep satellites at work longer ↗
The Mission Robotic Vehicle is making the first attempt to attach a new thruster to an aging satellite.
US government bans new foreign-made humanoids, robot dogs, and solar inverters, citing risks to national security ↗
The ban largely affects U.S. imports from China, which currently dominates the global market for making humanoid robots and solar inverters.
Enigma raises $71M to make controlling a robot as easy as adjusting the volume ↗
The massive seed round was led by Index Ventures and Ribbit Capital, with participation from Sarah Guo's Conviction Partners.
Are brain waves the next unlock for physical AI? ↗
Forget YouTube videos — frontier physical AI models need multiple camera angles, dense annotation, and, soon, brain wave readings.
Gritt exits stealth with $32 million for robots to build solar plants — then, everything else ↗
Gritt is coming out of stealth with $34 million and plans to automate the hardest tasks on construction sites.
Agility Robotics plants its flag in Tesla’s backyard ↗
Agility is opening a new training center for its Digit robots in Fremont, California.
This startup thinks robotics is about to have its ChatGPT moment ↗
General Intuition is betting millions of hours of video game data can train the foundation models for physical AI, making it easier to build smarter robots with minimal real-world data.
The first American autonomous ground vehicles are fighting in Ukraine ↗
Forterra has deployed more than 100 of its self-driving ATVs in conflict zones in Ukraine.
This humanoid robotics company is going public, but its CEO isn’t promising a robot in your home anytime soon ↗
While other humanoid startups chase sky-high valuations, Agility Robotics is betting its future on execution — and a SPAC.
Robot hand company settles Tesla trade secret suit and announces $11M raise ↗
The startup, Proception, is taking a unique approach to collecting training data to tackle one of the hardest problems in robotics: hands.
General Intuition’s $2.3B bet that video games can train AI agents for the real world ↗
General Intuition has raised $320 million to scale AI trained on millions of hours of gameplay, betting action data can help AI develop something closer to human intuition.
Agility Robotics plans to go public via SPAC in a $2.5B deal ↗
Agility Robotics, the humanoid robotics startup that spun out of Oregon State University in 2015, expects to generate $620 million in proceeds.
Founders Fund’s outlier bet on humanely killed fish ↗
Shinkei makes a refrigerator-sized robot called Poseidon to kill fish quickly and humanely.
Theker just raised $85M to build the factory robot that doesn’t specialize in anything ↗
Unlike humanoid robots designed around a fixed form — think Boston Dynamics — Theker's machines are built to be reconfigured.
Startup Battlefield 200 applications officially close in 3 days ↗
Applications for Startup Battlefield 200 officially close on June 8, 11:59 p.m.
Is Silicon Valley ready to put robots in people’s homes? Hello Robot is. ↗
The California startup released the fourth-generation of its home assistance robot, Stretch.