Tootfinder

Shenzhen-based UBTech signed deals to supply its Walker S2 humanoid robots to Airbus and Texas Instruments, and says it aims to produce 10,000 units in 2026 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-19/air…

"Our key insight is that, despite being imperfect, such quasi-realistic data still provide priors about human primitive skills in tennis scenarios.... We also propose a series of designs for robust sim-to-real transfer and deploy our policy on the Unitree G1 #humanoid_robot . Our method achieves surprising results in the real world and can stably sustain multi-shot rallies with human p…

This time we look at why you may not be able to hand your household chores over to robots just yet, Delhi Police’s dystopian turn and Japan’s biggest port under ransomware attack.
https://www.computing.co.uk/news/2026/are-you-ready-for-the…

Are you ready for the humanoid robot bubble? - Asian Tech Roundup

Boston Dynamics partners with Google DeepMind to integrate Gemini Robotics models into Atlas robots, boosting their object-manipulation capabilities and more (Will Knight/Wired)
https://www.wired.com/story/google-boston-dynamics-gemini-powered-robot-atlas/

Google Gemini Is Taking Control of Humanoid Robots on Auto Factory Floors
Google DeepMind and Boston Dynamics are teaming up to integrate Gemini into a humanoid robot called Atlas.

Tesla will end production of its two flagship models, the Model S and Model X, which have long carried the company's prestige.
According to statements by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, the fundamental reason behind this decision is the company's desire to shift its resources and production infrastructure toward autonomous driving and robotics.
Planned to take effect from the next quarter, this production halt has generated significant reverberations throughout the automotive indus…

Tesla Halts Model S and Model X Production, Shifts Focus to Autonomous Future
Tesla has decided to discontinue production of its flagship Model S and Model X vehicles. The company will convert production lines at its Fremont factory to focus on the humanoid robot Optimus and autonomous vehicle technologies. This move is considered a significant milestone in Tesla's long-term strategic transformation.

Humanoid showdown: Chinese firms make up 55% of robot exhibitors at US tech event https://interestingengineering.com/ces-2026/china-leads-humanoid-robotics-at-ces-2026

Bernstein: 42% of China's 20K humanoid robot shipments in 2025 were education and R&D; data collection and human-robot interaction services each made up 19% (Ryan McMorrow/Financial Times)
https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/rede…

Omdia: global humanoid robot shipments rose more than 5x YoY in 2025 to ~13K units; China accounted for the vast majority, led by AgiBot shipping ~5,168 units (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-01-08/chi…

Mobileye is acquiring Israeli humanoid robot startup Mentee Robotics in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $900M; Mentee was founded in 2022 and has raised $50M (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026…

Boston Dynamics unveils a new iteration of its Atlas humanoid robot designed to work in Hyundai's plants starting in 2028, including at a factory in Georgia (Hyonhee Shin/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

How China boosts its humanoid robot industry, giving companies land, favorable bank loan terms, and sometimes subsidizing the robots' purchase price by ~10% (Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/china-is-going-al…

How executives at humanoid robot startups like Agility Robotics and Weave Robotics are managing safety risks and tempering expectations for the technology (Sean McLain/Wall Street Journal)
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/humanoid-robot

Austin-based humanoid robot startup Apptronik raised $520M led by Google and others at a $5.5B valuation, up 3x from when it raised $350M in February 2025 (Samantha Kelly/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20

Encord, whose software helps companies developing AI models manage training data for robots and other uses, raised $60M at a $500M pre-money valuation (Rocket Drew/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/robot-data-startup-raises-60-million

A Robot Data Startup Raises $60 Million
Companies developing AI models to power humanoid and other robots have been hard at work collecting videos and other data for training their models, even paying people to record themselves completing tasks in homes and workplaces.As these data-collection efforts start to pay off, and robots take ...

Local governments across China are funding dozens of "robot training centers", where human trainers mimic movements like folding clothes to teach the robots (Rest of World)
https://restofworld.org/2026/china-robots-training-centers-workers/

In Chinese data factories, workers teach humanoid robots boring tasks
Local governments are building training centers to address a shortage of robotic data, as China makes embodied intelligence a national priority.

Chinese humanoid robot startup Galbot raised over $300M led by China Mobile's industry investment fund at a $3B valuation, bringing its total funding to $800M (Eudora Wang/DealStreetAsia)
https://www.dealstreetasia.com/stories/galbot-raises-over-300m-467245

Chinese humanoid robot developer Galbot raises $300m at $3b valuation
The financing will accelerate the adoption of the robots across different use cases.

A look at Hyundai's Atlas humanoid robot, slated for assembly tasks in 2028; Hyundai has invested billions in robotics since acquiring Boston Dynamics in 2021 (Hyonhee Shin/Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/20