OpenAI is dissolving its standalone robotics team for the second time, but not because it lacks data. General-purpose models like GPT-6 Astra can apparently control robots directly, making a dedicated unit unnecessary. The researchers are being redistributed across other teams in what the company frames as a way to accelerate its robotics efforts.
The startups work across the deep tech sector, including healthcare, fintech, energy, semiconductors, and AI. All nine are looking to enter the US.
Tapping into the country’s strengths in manufacturing and engineering, NVIDIA is helping advance Korea’s physical AI ecosystem. The country’s industry leaders are applying accelerated computing, AI and simulation to everything from semiconductor manufacturing to robotics and autonomous vehicles. These efforts are helping bring physical AI from development into real-world production.
Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT and NVIDIA hosted the MSIT-NVIDIA AI Startup Partnership Forum at COEX. Representatives from the Ministry of Science and ICT and NVIDIA met with over 20 Korean startups across foundation models, physical AI, AI infrastructure and AI semiconductors.
Physicl is trying to solve the sim-to-real gap with a pipeline originally built to market goods online.
I’m not the sort of person who typically pays for a house cleaner. I’m too frugal, and I kind of enjoy putting on a podcast and going to town on my tub with a Magic Eraser.
US leader in deploying humanoid robots goes public on the Nasdaq stock exchange.
Agility arrives on the Nasdaq today as the first publicly traded pure-play humanoid robotics company.
President orders trade talks on foreign-made factory robots, threatens tariffs.
US robotics company stands by ICE deal as more than 300 employees warn of risk.
Toyota wants to turn itself into a global robotics company, and it's betting on humanoid robots and factory automation to get there.
The robots, stomping their little feet and making tiny R2D2 noises, sat, fell down dead for a "nap," and summersaulted on voice command.
The company plans to begin testing Pony.ai's robotaxis in Kazakhstan's capital in the first half of 2027.
Ukraine’s latest drone innovation may boost bleak odds of evacuating casualties.
Eka Robotics may be the first robotic arm that is actually good at picking a wide range of objects up, and it is so smooth and human-like, it is wowing the industry.
University of Michigan spinout Laplace Intelligence uses AI agents and interactive simulation to stress-test robots and self-driving vehicles before deployment. The profitable startup is competing in Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt, October 13-15 in San Francisco.
Carolyn Marvin was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after blocking the path of an Uber delivery robot and refusing to get out of the way.
Day 2 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, full of all themes across AI, as well as an investor-only session, more roundtables, Side Events, and more. Register to save 50% on your pass.
"Small weight-based replicators" could usher in a new generation of computer worms.
Industrial Next helps manufacturers automate complex, delicate tasks that have traditionally required human labor.
Max Hodak, the former president and co-founder of Neuralink, detailed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt how his company's work with PRIMA is part of its path toward a novel brain-computer interface (BCI).
University of Michigan spinout Laplace Intelligence uses AI agents and interactive simulation to stress-test robots and self-driving vehicles before deployment. The profitable startup is competing at TechCrunch Disrupt's Startup Battlefield.
The second-largest corporate employer has bet big on robot workers to scale.
For six years, Danu founder Amy Ma has been working on a better way to sort recyclable waste.
The California State Athletic Commission sent a cease-and-desist letter to a startup that hosted a match between a human and a robot last month, as reported by The New York Times.
Full-stack safety solution for physical AI is being used by robotics companies.
Safeworld is building digital humans to make sure robots don't hurt the real ones.
"One of the biggest reasons we are winning against robotics companies is because we are not a robotics company."
Fei-Fei Li's AI startup World Labs is being acquired by AMD for $8.2 billion. Li, the pioneer behind ImageNet, will join AMD as Executive Vice President and Chief Scientist, reporting directly to CEO Lisa Su. World Labs brings its spatial intelligence models, including Atlas, which generates and simulates 3D environments from minimal input.
The acquisition will see World Labs founder Fei-Fei Li join AMD as executive vice president and chief scientist.
AMD is acquiring World Labs for $8.2 billion. Since its founding in 2024, World Labs has built model-training teams for images, video and spatial reconstruction, and advanced its robotics simulation capabilities by acquiring SceniX. Its recently released Atlas is an omni model architecture that predicts new viewpoints from 2D images.
Despite challenges, Tesla aims for 1,000 Optimus robots per week by end of 2026.
$11M competition showed wildfire detection is still easier than stopping fires.
Physical AI is moving rapidly from research to large-scale deployment. By 2035, ABI Research projects an installed base of 49 million level 3-5 autonomous vehicles (AVs), while Omdia estimates that roughly 60 million industrial robots will be deployed between 2026 and 2035.
Google DeepMind launched a three-month Robotics accelerator for 15 early-stage European robotics start-ups, providing technical guidance and access to its AI stack and Gemini robotics models. Covering logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, climate and navigation, it starts in London this week.