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Every funding round, launch and paper, as it's reported.

307 stories
Mar 11, 2026
M&AJP

EU clears SoftBank's $5.4 billion ABB Robotics deal, a price of 17 times EBITDA to give its robot AI a body

The European Commission cleared SoftBank Group's purchase of ABB's robotics division, valued at USD 5.375 billion, under its simplified procedure on 11 March 2026. The price equals 17.2 times the division's 2024 EBITDA, while the floor valuation of Skild AI, whose round SoftBank led in January, is 2.6 times as high. Approvals in China and the United States remain, and both companies expect closing in mid-to-late 2026.

Mar 10, 2026
FundingUS

Rhoda AI leaves stealth with a $450 million Series A to run factory robots on a model that learns from internet video

Palo Alto start-up Rhoda AI emerged on 10 March 2026 with a $450 million Series A from Khosla Ventures, Mayfield, Temasek and six other institutions, plus John Doerr. Its Direct Video Action model predicts video of a task and converts it into robot actions, and the company says new tasks can need as little as ten hours of teleoperation data. No lead investor, valuation or customer was disclosed.

Mar 9, 2026
MarketCN

Estun lists in Hong Kong at the bottom of its range, raising HK$1.49 billion as China's top-selling robot brand returns to profit

Nanjing industrial robot maker Estun Automation began trading in Hong Kong on 9 March 2026 after pricing 96.78 million H shares at HK$15.36, raising HK$1.49 billion gross, with half of the net proceeds reserved for overseas plants, alliances and acquisitions. Its first annual results as a dual-listed company showed 2025 revenue up 21.93% and a small profit after a RMB810.93 million loss, while stabilisation buying down to HK$11.69 showed weak aftermarket demand.

Mar 5, 2026
FundingCN

Robot Era raises CNY1 billion from Samsung, Singtel and others, pushing its valuation past CNY10 billion

Tsinghua spin-out Robot Era closed a CNY1 billion strategic round two months after its previous financing, with Samsung, Singtel and a Woori Financial Group investment arm among new backers. The Beijing humanoid maker reports more than CNY500 million in cumulative orders, half from overseas, and sold close to 1,000 dexterous hands in 2025.

Mar 2, 2026
FundingCN

Galbot raises RMB 2.5 billion as China's Big Fund makes its first embodied AI bet at a RMB 20 billion valuation

Beijing humanoid robot maker Galbot announced on 2 March 2026 that it had closed a RMB 2.5 billion round, which Haidian district officials called the largest single financing in China's embodied AI sector. The state Big Fund invested in embodied AI for the first time through the National Artificial Intelligence Industry Investment Fund, alongside Sinopec, CITIC and SAIC's finance arm, and the Zhongguancun Science City administration put Galbot's valuation at RMB 20 billion.

Feb 28, 2026
PolicyCN

China publishes its first national standard framework for humanoid robots and embodied AI, with Unitree, AgiBot and UBTech at the table

A standards committee set up under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the Humanoid Robot and Embodied Intelligence Standard System (2026 Edition) in Beijing on 28 February 2026. The six-part framework runs from AI "brains" and computing to joints, complete robots, applications and safety, and came with a first list of priority standard projects drafted with more than 70 leading companies.

Feb 27, 2026
PartnershipDE

BMW brings a humanoid into German car production for the first time, putting Hexagon's AEON on battery work in Leipzig

BMW Group said on 27 February 2026 that Plant Leipzig will pilot Hexagon Robotics' wheeled AEON humanoid in high-voltage battery assembly and component production, after a first test in December 2025 and with the pilot phase set for summer 2026. It also set up a Munich-based Center of Competence for Physical AI in Production and published the results of its 2025 Figure 02 pilot in Spartanburg, where the robot moved more than 90,000 parts in about 1,250 hours.

Feb 27, 2026
BusinessKR

Hyundai pledges 9 trillion won for a Saemangeum hub that pairs a 30,000-robot plant with a 50,000-GPU data centre

Hyundai Motor Group agreed on February 27, 2026 to invest about 9 trillion won from 2026 in a robotics, AI and hydrogen hub at Saemangeum in North Jeolla. The plan includes a 400 billion won robot cluster with a finished-robot factory sized for about 30,000 units a year, a contract-manufacturing foundry and a parts complex, due in 2029, next to a 5.8 trillion won AI data centre scaled in phases to 50,000 GPUs.

Feb 26, 2026
BusinessGB

Ocado pockets £261 million from Kroger site closures and cuts £150 million of costs to turn cash positive

Ocado Group's technology unit lifted revenue 13% to £561.2 million and its EBITDA margin to 25% in the year to November 2025, but Kroger closed three US fulfilment centres in January and paid £261 million in closure fees. The British automation group guided technology revenue down to about £500 million for FY26, plans to cut about £150 million of costs with significant job losses, and expects to turn cash flow positive in the second half.

Feb 25, 2026
PartnershipUS

Physical Intelligence pitches its π models as a shared robot brain, with Weave and Ultra as first proof at 96.4% autonomy

Physical Intelligence on February 24, 2026 laid out its plan to sell general-purpose robot models as a ready-made ‘physical intelligence layer’ for other robot makers, the way developers call language models through an API. It named home robot maker Weave and warehouse robot maker Ultra as partners, reporting a full packing shift at 96.4% autonomy and a 50% cut in laundry-folding interventions, but gave no pricing or access terms.

Feb 19, 2026
BusinessCA

Toyota's Canadian car plants sign Agility Robotics to a paid Digit humanoid service after a pilot

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada has signed a Robots-as-a-Service agreement with Agility Robotics to deploy Digit humanoids in manufacturing, supply chain and logistics work at its Cambridge and Woodstock plants in Ontario, following a pilot. Neither company disclosed fleet size, contract value or term. The deal adds a Toyota vehicle plant to a Digit customer list that already includes GXO, Schaeffler, Amazon and Mercado Libre, as rivals tie up with BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai.

Feb 12, 2026
MarketNO

AutoStore ends 2025 with record quarterly orders and revenue, but full-year sales fall 10% and profit drops 40%

AutoStore said fourth-quarter 2025 revenue rose 9.0% to $179.7 million and order intake jumped 35.1% to $194.2 million, both company records. Full-year revenue still fell 10.4% to $538.6 million and net income dropped 40.1%, as the Norwegian cube storage maker absorbed longer customer decision cycles, restructuring and a robot write-down.

Feb 12, 2026
BusinessJP

Nabtesco's robot gear orders rise for a fourth straight quarter, doubling component profit as China and Korea EV projects return

Nabtesco, which estimates it supplies about 60% of the joint reducers in medium and large industrial robots, said component segment orders rose 16.2% to ¥82.4 billion in 2025 and operating income more than doubled to ¥5.4 billion. The Tokyo-listed company forecasts precision reduction gear sales of ¥88.2 billion in 2026, with robot demand recovering mainly in the second half, while its Changzhou plant already runs at 115% utilisation.

Feb 11, 2026
FundingUS

Apptronik raises $520 million Series A-X at triple its earlier valuation, taking the round past $935 million as it readies a new Apollo

Austin humanoid maker Apptronik said on 11 February 2026 that it had closed a $520 million Series A-X extension priced at three times its Series A valuation, lifting total Series A funding above $935 million. John Deere, AT&T Ventures and Qatar Investment Authority joined returning backers B Capital, Google, Mercedes-Benz and PEAK6, and the company said the money will pay for Apollo production, training and data facilities and a new robot due in 2026.

Feb 5, 2026
BusinessUS

Symbotic lifts revenue 29% to $630 million and swings to profit, but Walmart still supplies 86% of sales

Symbotic reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $629.9 million on 4 February 2026, up 29% from a year earlier, with net income of $13.4 million and adjusted EBITDA of $66.9 million. Its backlog stood at $22.3 billion and it guided second-quarter revenue to $650 million to $670 million. Walmart accounted for 85.6% of revenue, and a change in stock-compensation accounting added $9.3 million to profit.

Feb 4, 2026
FundingUS

Bedrock Robotics raises $270 million at a $1.75 billion valuation to take excavators operator-less in 2026

Bedrock Robotics, founded in 2024 by former Waymo engineers, raised a $270 million Series B co-led by CapitalG and Valor Atreides AI Fund, taking total funding past $350 million. The San Francisco company retrofits existing excavators with autonomy and is targeting its first operator-less deployments this year, a month after Caterpillar unveiled its own construction autonomy line.

Feb 4, 2026
FundingUS

Machina Labs raises $124 million Series C from Toyota and Lockheed Martin venture arms to build a 50-cell robotic metal-forming plant

Los Angeles-based Machina Labs closed a $124 million Series C on 4 February 2026 with Woven Capital, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Balerion Space Ventures and the Strategic Development Fund. The money funds a 200,000-square-foot US factory for up to 50 RoboCraftsman cells making defense and aerospace structures. No lead investor or valuation was disclosed.

Feb 3, 2026
BusinessUS

Teradyne's robotics arm shrinks 16% to $308 million in 2025 and restructures about 400 jobs as AI test demand lifts the group

Teradyne said its Universal Robots and MiR unit booked $89 million of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025, up about 19% on the third quarter but below $98 million a year earlier. Full year robotics revenue fell to $308 million from $365 million, and restructuring in the unit affected about 400 employees, while group revenue rose 44% in the quarter on AI chip test demand.

Feb 2, 2026
FundingCN

LimX Dynamics raises $200 million Series B as JD and SAIC-backed capital bet on its robot operating system

Shenzhen-based LimX Dynamics said on 2 February 2026 it had closed a US$200 million Series B with investors including Stone Venture, JD, Oriental Fortune Capital, CoStone Capital and SAIC-backed Shangqi Capital. The round came three weeks after the launch of LimX COSA, the agentic operating system that runs its full-size humanoid Oli, and the company added a second US$200 million pre-IPO round 162 days later.