Who said "data is the new oil"? hint... 2006

Plus Figure and the flood gates opening for robotics funding (apparently)

Sharing some great posts, books and conferences from other people this week!

When British mathematician Clive Humby declared in 2006 that “data is the new oil,” he meant that data, like oil, isn't useful in its raw state. It needs to be refined, processed and turned into something useful; its value lies in its potential.

It’s going around the social spheres at the moment credited to various big name investors but just so we’re all clear here :)

But there’s a lot of interesting investment talk about what data and the new digital infrastructure look like, and how much value there is in the old infrastructure and how robots tie it all together. Of course!

Via Ryan Gariepy via Seth Winteroth of Eclipse Ventures

Excitement in humanoid robots continues to ramp up! Last week this was fueled in particular by the announcement of Figure's recent funding round - completely unprecedented both in terms of absolute dollars and in terms of the associated revenue multiple (infinite or something very close to?)

Two perspectives on this:

First, for those who believe that it's completely bonkers, it's going to fuel false expectations, it's going to reduce capital availability for other robotics companies, it's setting up their team for failure, etc: Given all the funding cycles I've seen for robotics, this is excellent! When Clearpath Robotics by Rockwell Automation was started, there was no funding going into robotics _at all_. When we spun up OTTO Motors by Rockwell Automation, all the funding was going to passenger self driving cars and we had to fight to get people to pay attention to advanced manufacturing. Say what you will about humanoid hype, but at least the problems this new breed of companies are solving are meaningful, and there will be learnings we can all benefit from!

And for those on the other side of things who believe that these companies obsolete all the other companies working on different form factors: From a first principles basis, humanoids are suboptimal from a cost and performance perspective in many many fields when compared to other robot form factors - yes, even assuming economies of scale! Plus, it's not just about the robots. Any time the teams of the humanoid robot companies spend solving the unique problems brought on by the form factor is time and focus *not* spent on everything else needed to have successful and scalable robot deployments, and that 'everything else' is a very long list which has many potential 'company killers' on it.

In the end, humanoid form factors will absolutely make a difference to the world, but they're not going to upend the way we work and live all on their own.

Via Brett Adcock at Figure.AI

Deep Tech founders:

As promised, I’m passing along my go-to investors

I hope this can aid those struggling with traditional VCs

These investors, who have supported me at Archer Aviation and Figure, fly under the radar yet are willing to make significant investments in deep tech:

- Parkway Venture Capital
- Tamarack Global
- Align Ventures
- Aliya Capital Partners
- Disruptive Founders Fund
- Team Global
- Troy Capital Partners
- FJ Labs
- Sigmas Group

I've found, through trial and error, the traditional VCs rarely fund *real* Deep Tech. They have SW mandates and are petrified of hardware

I’m sharing these insights because I’ve faced these challenges myself, and I hope this can help someone out there 🫡

Via Patrick OShaughnessy at PositiveSumVC

Railroads, skewers, fiber and other physical infrastructure was all once cutting edge technology. The world is built on it The same thing is happening in the digital world and Martin is a leading expert to guide us: https://joincolossus.com/episodes/1290016/casado-the-past-present-and-future-of-digital-infrastructure?tab=blocks…

Via Kyle Harrison on Substack

The Age of Incumbents

Did you just switch to a paid subscription? Thank you! It makes you an angel investor in the work I do at Silicon Valley Robotics as a startup advisor, and accelerator.

If you are a robotics company, February is a great time to join Silicon Valley Robotics and our startup accelerator program.

Interesting News:

Machine Learning Q and AI from Sebastian Raschka

Machine Learning Q and AI

If you’re ready to venture beyond introductory concepts and dig deeper into machine learning, deep learning, and AI, the question-and-answer format of Machine Learning Q and AI will make things fast and easy for you, without a lot of mucking about.

• Order directly from No Starch Press

• Order from Amazon.com

• Link to the Supplementary Materials and Discussions on GitHub

• ISBN-13: 978-1718503762

We all saw Groq and Google Gemini all over the news last week, so to follow on from last week’s call out….

Gemini:

Should We Let AI Art Rewrite History?

Groq:

A Deep Dive into the Underlying Architecture of Groq's LPU

btw - met the founder of Groq at the FIRE2023 conference last year, where I organized a panel on humanoid robotics with Jeff Cardenas (Apptronik), Bernt Oivind Bornich (1X) and Jonathan Roberts (Agility Robotics), and I was impressed by the potential of Groq for robotics, but I’m also going to give a shout out to two other startups that I met at FIRE:

MemComputing - delivering the performance of quantum computers today by simulation.

NaqiLogix - a silent and invisible Human-Machine-Interface breakthrough. Voice-free, touch-free, and screen-free. (hint - neural earbuds work really well!)

Robotics Events:

28-29 March - Curbivore - Downtown Los Angeles

Delivery & Mobility Innovation Converge at Curbivore - Special Offer for Members!

Join me at Curbivore, where the worlds of delivery robotics, mobility innovation, food automation, civic technology and policy / regulation converge, March 28 & 29 in Downtown LA. Meet with and hear from leaders at Starship, Waymo, DoorDash, Uber, Coco Robotics, Zenblen, as well as investors, media, and more - plus get your hands on all the latest machinery. First time attendees can join for just $20 when they register with code RS20.

6 March - Bots&Beer - ?? looking for venue in Peninsula or SF ??

9 Mar - 10 Mar - TAHRI 2024 Boulder CO - (Technology Advances for HRI)

1 Mar - 14 Mar - HRI 2024 Boulder CO

5-6 April - SF Symphony: Press Play Carol Reiley and the Robots - Soundbox SF

6 April - Robot Block Party - Circuit Launch San Leandro at Bayfair Mall

18-21 April 2024 - RoboGames - TBC

21 April 2024 - Robots on Ice - Yerba Buena Skating Rink SF

Some more upcoming academic robotics conferences:

• Haptics 2024 Long Beach CA 7 Apr - 10 Apr

• Robosoft 2024 San Diego CA 14 Apr - 17 Apr

• ICRA 2024 Yokohama Japan 13 May - 17 May 2024

• ARSO 2024 Hong Kong, China 20 May - 22 May 2024

• AIM 2024 Boston MA 14 July - 18 July

• CASE 2024 Puglia Italy 28 Aug - 1 Sep 2024

• IROS 2024 AbuDhabi 14 Oct - 18 Oct 2024

• Humanoids 2024 Nancy FR 26 Nov - 28 Nov

• ICRA 2025 Atlanta Georgia 17 May - 23 May 2025