Forget robots, make money with models instead
If you want a multibillion $ valuation then it's not about the robots, it's about modeling the physical world. Of course, having robots is going to help with that!
Just outed is Elorian, founded by veteran DeepMind and Apple AI research scientists, Andrew Dai and Yinfei Yang. Elorian is reportedly in talks to raise $50 million to build AI models that can visually interpret and analyze the physical world through simultaneous image, video and audio processing. While robotics is one potential use case, Elorian envisions many others.
Field AI has raised more than $405 million and reached a valuation of more than $2 billion. Dyna Robotics, “advancing robotics foundation models on the path to Physical AGI”, has raised almost $150 million for a valuation somewhere north of $600 million. Foxglove’s valuation reached $190 million following a $40 million Series B round in November, Sometimes it seems that the more real work in the real world a company does, the lower the valuation!
Physical Intelligence, “bringing general-purpose AI into the physical world”, raise $650 million recently valuing it at $5.6 billion. Saudi Arabia is following fast injecting $900M into Luma.AI for world models, or large-scale multimodal systems.
Having left Meta, Yann LeCun’s Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs is raising around $550-$600 million at a $3.5 billion valuation and the company’s only been in existence for about 6 weeks.
Then of course you have Jeff Bezos, who is not only investing in some of the startups above but also taking an operational role again with a new company, Project Prometheus. Project Prometheus launched with $6.2 billion in secured funding, and the goal of developing AI for the physical world.
As well as the other major tech companies from Google, Meta, to Nvidia, we’re seeing Physical AI show up across the board with everyone from Midea to Arm getting on board. This is not an exhaustive list, and it will be interesting to see which companies, like Periodic Labs, specialize in one or two sciences or verticals, which are purely model based, and which will be useful for robotics.
2nd What Bimanual Can Do (WBCD) Competition at ICRA 2026: Real Tasks. Real Robots. Real Benchmarks.
Dear Roboticists,
Following the success of our inaugural event, we are thrilled to announce the 2nd “What Bimanual Can Do” (WBCD) Competition at ICRA 2026 in Vienna, Austria.
Are you working on the cutting edge of VLA, teleoperation, or sim-to-real transfer? Do you want to test your algorithms on real hardware without the logistical burden?
What’s New for 2026? Aside from $200,000 Total Awards, this year, we are significantly upgrading the competition resources to lower the barrier to entry and push the technical boundaries:
Data-Driven Focus: We are providing pre-collected UMI (Universal Manipulation Interface) data from top robotics startups to support data-driven methods and fine-tuning.
Sim-to-Real Pipeline: Organizers from top universities developed a dedicated Simulation Platform for preliminary screening and development, allowing you to validate your code before touching real hardware.
Global Participation (Hybrid Format): While the main stage is at ICRA in Vienna, we are introducing satellite sites in Shanghai and Silicon Valley to accommodate teams unable to travel due to visa issues.
The Challenge Develop a robot software system to solve one of three realistic, high-value tasks using bimanual platforms:
Bio-lab Automation
Logistics Packing
Deformable Object Manipulation
What We Offer
State-of-the-Art Hardware: Access to premium bimanual robot systems onsite.
Substantial Prizes: 200,000 USD in total for top-performing teams!
Networking: Connect with leading robotics founders, VCs, and top researchers.
Please complete the registration form here: https://forms.gle/n1sDLftZEyWXphxy7
Deadline: January 31, 2026
Info Session: We will host an online info session in Jan-Feb to explain the formats, new simulation platform, and datasets. For more details on the tasks and rules, please visit our website: https://wbcdcompetition.github.io/
We look forward to seeing how you handle the new challenges in Vienna, Shanghai, or Silicon Valley!
The Organizing Team WBCD Competition 2026 (Zhuo Xu, Lingfeng Sun, Dennis Gu, Peter Yu, Yao Mu, Huazhe Xu, Michael Cho, Danfei Xu, Weize Li, Xinghao Zhu, Tao Chen, Toru Lin)
Peter Yu CTO, XYZ Robotics
Cal Competes Tax Credit – Deadline 1/26
Applications are now open until January 26 for the California Competes Tax Credit (CCTC), an income tax credit available to businesses that want to locate in California or stay and grow in California. Businesses of any industry, size, or location compete for over $180 million available in tax credits by applying in one of the three application periods each year. Applicants will be analyzed based on fourteen different factors of evaluation, including the number of full-time jobs being created, the amount of investment, and strategic importance to the state or region. Attend an upcoming webinar on January 15.
Morgan Stanley’s top 25 humanoid robot companies
via Tom Carter at Business Insider
Morgan Stanley added that the list is intended to help investors look beyond humanoid robot manufacturers and focus on the foundational component suppliers who stand to benefit as robots become mainstream.
Baidu
iFlytek
Desay
Horizon Robotics
Alibaba
Samsung Electronics
NVIDIA
Cadence
Synopsys
ARM
AMD
Texas Instruments
Samsung Electro-Mechanics
Onsemi
Microchip
Sony
Ambarella
NXP
ROHM Semiconductor
Melexis
STMicroelectronics
Infineon
Renesas
Joyson
Hesai
Do you work in robotics and have a story to share about your company’s development or workplace culture? Get in touch with this reporter at tcarter@businessinsider.com, or tcarter.41 on Signal.
Bracing for the Enshittification of Embodied AI and Robotics - via Paul Robinette
In November 2022, Cory Doctorow coined the term “enshittification” to viscerally describe the process by which two-sided marketplaces (i.e., platforms that connect buyers and sellers) have tended to degrade over the past decades, leading users on both sides of the market to experience a worse product. In its most basic form, enshittification describes the intentional decline of platform quality over time. Robots intended for home consumer use are often social in nature and use social interaction and relationship norms to keep users engaged. Turning such robots into two-sided market platforms, where users and advertisers both become targets of monetization, poses unique and significant risks. Unlike static smart or connected devices, social robots actively engage users via gaze, gesture, language, and dialog, which makes them uniquely persuasive forms of technology. This raises unique potential risks related to deception and manipulation of end-users. This symposium will not focus on enumerating potential negative outcomes; instead, we will use these examples to motivate and support methods that AI researchers in particular can use to address enshittification before it takes over the embodied AI and robotics fields.
Committee: Paul Robinette (UMass Lowell), Alan Wagner (Penn State University), Ross Mead (Semio), Samantha Reig (UMass Lowell).
Potential topics include but are not limited to:
Case studies of dual-sided AI deployments
Privacy-aware AI
Ensuring trustworthy behavior of AI systems
AI Ethics/Responsible Computing
Discussion of societal impacts of robots that enshittify.
Consideration of the inequities caused by devices that advertise relentlessly.
Discussion of a research agenda to anticipate and prevent the enshittification of robots that provide services (e.g., in public, in homes).
Affective manipulation by consumer products and AI driven technologies
The symposium will combine invited talks, panels, lightning talks, poster sessions, discussion sessions, and working sessions. Attendance is open to all who are interested. At least one author of each accepted paper is expected to attend.
Submissions should be to https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sss26 by January 30, 2026. Papers should be 2–4 pages in length and use the two-column AAAI format. Selected papers will be asked to present as a lightning talk, panel discussion, and/or poster. Check the website for more information.
Please direct questions to enshittification2026aaai@gmail.com.
Symposium website: https://sites.google.com/view/bracing-for-enshittification/home
Silicon Valley Robotics Investor/Startup Database
Are you a startup fundraising atm? Fill out our "For Investors Eyes Only" sheet.
These investors write checks anywhere from angel and seed stage to $5-50 million.
Feedback from the startups - high quality inbound interest from investors.
Feedback from the investors - incredible depth and range of robotics startups.
If you’re an accredited investor and haven’t already signed up for the spreadsheet - Sign up here for great robotics deal flow!
Send me your 2025 progress and 2026 plans for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups.
Tech Connect Opportunities for Startups
Bring Your Textile Solution to the National Stage
Enter the Challenge by January 16
Textiles are being rethought from the fiber up, driven by higher performance demands, accelerated production timelines, and the need for transparent, resilient, U.S.-based supply chains.
The Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Innovation Challenge is designed to identify and advance solutions that are already addressing these challenges across materials, manufacturing, and digital infrastructure.
If your team is improving how defense textiles are designed, produced, or validated, this is your opportunity to put that work in front of the decision-makers driving what comes next.
Seeking solutions in:
Advanced textile materials and components
Automated textile manufacturing
Data/IP management for digital traceability
Digital engineering and digital manufacturing
Domestic supply chain surety
Textile test methods and validation
Why Participate?
Pitch at the TechConnect World Innovation Conference and Expo in Raleigh, NC, March 10-12
Engage with DOW, industry, and investment leaders managing over $8B in innovation funding
Gain visibility, pilot opportunities, and national recognition
Apply by January 15 and accelerate the future of advanced U.S. defense textiles.
Showcase Your Technology at the NSC Safety Summit
Applications Close January 16
Fatigue doesn’t announce itself—but its consequences show up on job sites, in hospitals, on roadways, and across every sector where people work long hours or demanding schedules.
The Safety Innovation Challenge: Workplace Fatigue is seeking real-world technologies that go beyond awareness to measure, mitigate, or reduce fatigue in meaningful, measurable ways.
We’re especially interested in technologies such as:
Digital and immersive instructional tools
Driver monitoring and vehicle-integrated safety systems
Physiological or cognitive fatigue screening
Predictive analytics, modeling, and AI-based risk tools
Robotics and unmanned tools that reduce high-fatigue tasks
Wearables and sensor-based monitoring
Workforce scheduling and fatigue-risk management platforms
Workplace safety systems / connected safety platforms
What you receive:
Make a real difference by reducing fatigue-related injuries
Present at the NSC Safety Summit this May as a semifinalist
Gain visibility by pitching your solution to safety leaders, partners, and investors
Solutions may include fatigue detection, predictive analytics, safety systems, workforce management tools, or other approaches that demonstrate proven impact.
Applications close January 16.
Meet With Federal Agencies Funding Innovation
Join us March 10-12
Join Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program representatives who are ready to help you sharpen your proposals and secure funding for your breakthrough ideas.
Whether you’re a startup founder, researcher, or academic representative, this is your chance to tap into over $4 billion in non-dilutive funding available each year for high-risk, early-stage R&D.
Learn about support for technology commercialization from America’s Seed Fund
In-depth Innovator Training Workshop
Expert-led panel sessions
SBIR/STTR Pavilion where you can spend time getting to know agency representatives
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to connect and learn!
Robotics Events
The next SVR Robotics Investment Summit is coming in early 2026 followed by the IEEE Hard Tech Venture Summit in Silicon Valley!
NRF - New York - Jan 11 to 13
1/15 – Accelerating Innovation - Digitization, Automation, and Supply Chains, Manufacturing USA (Virtual) via AMBayArea
1/21 – BioMade Community Capabilities Webinar | The NCERC Experience (Virtual) via AMBayArea
1/29 – AMBayArea Winter Forum (San Jose) via AMBayArea
2/19 – Bay Area Regional Manufacturing Executive Roundtable (Virtual) via AMBayArea
Bots & Beers - San Francisco or Silicon Valley - Feb 4
Drones and Robotics AI Summit - New York - March 26
European Robotics Forum - Norway - Mar 23 - Mar 27
IEEE Haptics Symposium - Reno - March 29 to Apr 1
ICRA 2026 - Vienna, Austria - Jun 01 - Jun 05
Robotics: Science and Systems - Sydney, Australia - Jul 13 - Jul 16
IROS 2026 - Pittsburgh
IEEE Humanoids 2026 - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9
The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.
Join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org
Robots are the exhaust, not the engine. The real compounding asset is the world model: perception + prediction + causal “what-if” planning that generalises across tasks and environments. Hardware still matters, but mainly as a data flywheel and a reality-check against simulation shortcuts—valuation follows whoever owns the fastest loop from real-world interaction → model improvement → deployment.