Nvidia is in talks to invest an additional $1 billion in humanoid robot company Figure, extending a strategy that has shifted the chipmaker from financial investor to core technology supplier to the startup. Nvidia previously joined Figure's Series C round and provides hardware support for training and deploying Figure's Helix AI model. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has called the partnership a "robot flywheel": models are trained on Nvidia's Vera Rubin chips, validated on its Isaac Sim simulation platform and ultimately deployed on Nvidia GPUs inside the robots. The closed loop is accelerating Nvidia's strategic push into physical AI.

Zhongda Leader Intelligent Transmission Co Ltd disclosed a preliminary plan for a 2026 targeted private placement of A-shares, seeking to raise up to 530 million yuan, with proceeds mainly earmarked for two production projects—embodied intelligence joint modules and distributed intelligent actuator units for industrial automation—and an R&D center upgrade.

The company said the private placement is aimed at capturing opportunities in emerging industries such as embodied intelligence and seizing the window for domestic substitution of core components.

China's ByteDance is preparing to launch an artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of generating spatial video in real time, according to people familiar with the matter, entering the world-model field with potential uses in robots and autonomous systems and competing with Meta and Google parent Alphabet. The new model builds on ByteDance's existing cinematic video-generation model Seedance, the sources said. It is designed to let users create interactive virtual worlds for livestreaming, short dramas and games. The vision-based AI approach is viewed as critical to advances in robotics, gaming and self-driving cars. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans are not public.

Amazon.com Inc said it plans to invest more than $100 million to build an advanced robotics manufacturing plant in Greenwood, Indiana, with production expected to begin in 2028. The facility will make warehouse robots and supporting automation equipment for Amazon's North American fulfillment network. The plant will integrate precision component machining, robotic welding, automated powder coating and final assembly, and will rely on AWS cloud and smart manufacturing systems, Amazon said. All completed robots and components produced there will be supplied to Amazon's North American fulfillment centers and robotics operations network.

Chinese consumer-grade embodied AI company Knowin, stylized as knowin, said it has raised several hundred million yuan in an angel+++ funding round led by a JD.com-linked fund. Loyal Valley Capital, Nanshan Strategic Emerging Investment and Walden International participated, the company said. Knowin has completed five funding rounds since it was founded in August 2025, raising more than 1 billion yuan in total. Its previous 500 million yuan round was announced on Aug. 10, just 49 days before the latest disclosure. Knowin is moving its GLOW generative embodied AI model from a “strong generalization” technical architecture toward a “teach once, learn immediately” capability that ordinary users can directly perceive. The former targets consumer-grade deployment, while the latter seeks to change how robots acquire new skills.

U.S. embedded Physical AI chip company iMa.ai said it raised $150 million in an oversubscribed Series C, valuing it at $1.45 billion post-money and lifting total equity funding to over $500 million. The round was co-led by Fidelity Management & Research and Amplify, with Alter Venture Partners, Dell Technologies Capital, Maverick Capital, +ND Capital, Point72 and StepStone participating. New investors included AllianceBernstein, Baron Capital, J.P. Morgan and the State of Michigan. Proceeds will scale Palette Neat, which iMa.ai calls the industry's first agentic software environment for Physical AI, and fund next-generation hardware including ML IP, chiplets and SoCs. The company aims to deliver dedicated Physical AI silicon with 1,000 dense TOPS in the first half of 2028.

 Chinese general-purpose embodied AI company Sudu Technology said it has completed a new funding round of more than 1 billion yuan ($140 million). The round was co-led by Shanghai Guotou Xiandao, Guotai Haitong and Futeng Capital, with participation from Daohe Long-term, Dongfeng Asset, China Development Bank Financial, Longmafeng and Liangtu Zhice, alongside existing shareholders including Xiaomi.

Sudu said the proceeds will mainly fund full-stack technology development and large-scale validation in real industrial scenarios. It plans to accelerate deployment of its embodied AI systems across multiple industries and at benchmark clients' production lines and workstations, testing the transfer, long-term stability and reuse of a single general-purpose intelligence base in real manufacturing environments, as it seeks to move from lab prototypes to industrial-scale productivity.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the benefits of artificial intelligence are enough for humanity to accept some risks, arguing the technology should remain widely open to the public rather than be tightly monopolized or centrally controlled by a few labs. "We think the world should accept certain negative events for the benefits of this technology and the autonomy people have," Altman said in an interview.

Maven Robotics said it completed a $100 million Series A round jointly invested by UAE investment firm Shorooq and Presight, a listed company under G42, through Presight–Shorooq AI and Bedaya Funds. RoboStrategy, LocalGlobe, Vine Ventures and XTX Ventures also participated. Founded in 2024, Maven Robotics focuses on intelligent industrial robots for logistics and manufacturing. The proceeds will mainly fund the build-out of a fleet of about 250 third-generation robots and the design of a fourth-generation model, while expanding from palletizing and bin handling into broader material-handling scenarios.