Astra learns to act, not just think On 28 September, the roboticswire outlet reported that researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Stanford University have introduced HomeBody, a system that gives GPT Astra a persistent spatial memory and the ability to perform compound humanoid actions for long-horizon tasks. In a typical kitchen scene, HomeBody … Read more
Six players, three routes In 2026 the American humanoid-robot industry began to protect itself. The United States now has at least six serious robot companies: Tesla, Figure, Boston Dynamics, Agility, Apptronik, plus 1X, which was born in Norway and landed in the United States. Six companies, six completely different technical routes. A roundup can look … Read more
The party that repriced embodied intelligence Recent public reports say the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will consult next year on revising its Chapter 18C regime for specialist technology companies, including a review of the market-cap threshold. That will affect the dozens of embodied-intelligence companies already in the queue. The backdrop is August 2026, when Unitree, … Read more
At a China-Arab digital economy matchmaking session on the sidelines of the fifth Global Digital Trade Expo, the Arab Digital Economy Alliance (AFDE) signed a framework memorandum of understanding with Ant Lingbo Technology, the embodied-AI company under Ant Group. Ant’s embodied-AI unit signed a Middle East deal that goes b (Source: Zhidx) Dr Ayman Ghoneim, … Read more
A humanoid robot weighing under 40 kg has pulled a car weighing 1.4 tonnes, roughly 40 times its own mass, for nearly ten metres. The stunt happened in Beijing’s Yizhuang district, where Xingyuan Zhi, working with the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (Zhiyuan), used its Thor whole-body control model to drive a 37.15 kg humanoid … Read more
A 1997-born founder who helped build Dreame’s robot-vacuum business has just put a small humanoid on sale for under 1,300 US dollars, and Ant Group led a 500 million yuan pre-Series A round to back him. Lexiang’s Bridge humanoid robot, 88 cm tall and under 13 kg. (Source: Zhidx) Guo Renjie joined Dreame in 2021 … Read more
Ruisong Technology plans a private placement of up to 784 million yuan, with the net proceeds after fees funding a high-precision, high-speed six-axis robot industrialisation project, an upgrade of its headquarters and R&D centre, and supplementary working capital and debt repayment. The raise expands capacity to meet demand, lifts process and quality, and strengthens the … Read more
On 1 September, XTRON Robot, a specialist in special-industrial embodied intelligence, announced a several-tens-of-millions-yuan Series A1 round. Investors include Qianhai Ark, Xihu Kechuangtou and Guangyang Shares. The proceeds will fund continued development of the XBOT-AEGIS embodied-intelligence system, R&D on multiple configurations of special-purpose embodied robots, and expansion at home and abroad. Founded in December 2022, … Read more
Hangzhou Guoxun Robotics has closed two rounds in the past half year worth tens of millions of yuan, invested by Jiuzhao Investment, Yueke Financial Group and Liang Venture Capital. Yueke is Guangdong’s largest state-owned mother-fund platform and one of China’s top five state professional fund managers, a state backing that signals capital confidence in the … Read more
Tesla’s Optimus production is moving from plan to numbers. Supply-chain sources say Tesla recently issued a new order of about 5,000 units, its first thousand-scale mass-production order after earlier trial batches of a few hundred. Combined with prior plans, this year’s delivery floor sits around 15,000 units. More importantly, a supplier audit lands in China … Read more