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Ashish Kumar, Former Tesla AI Lead Launches Robotics Startup

Ashish Kumar, who previously led Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot AI initiative, announced the founding of a new startup focused on developing non-humanoid robots. The venture is reportedly seeking to raise approximately $100 million in funding to innovate within the robotics industry.

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  • Manus parent Butterfly Effect raises over $500 mln in record China agent-native funding

    Butterfly Effect, the parent of AI agent Manus, said it has completed a new funding round of more than $500 million, the largest ever raised by a China-based agent-native startup. The round was led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital, with existing investors Tencent, HongShan and ZhenFund also participating. The funding news follows Manus's launch of Manus 2.0 and Cue, a multi-agent group chat app, on Sept. 29. It was the company's first major update since it formally resumed independent operations on Sept. 1. Manus 2.0 uses Cascade, its in-house agent framework. The framework allows user-created projects to stay lightweight from the outset and invoke relevant specialized capabilities only when tasks actually require them.

  • Ashish Kumar, Former Tesla AI Lead Launches Robotics Startup

    Ashish Kumar, who previously led Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot AI initiative, announced the founding of a new startup focused on developing non-humanoid robots. The venture is reportedly seeking to raise approximately $100 million in funding to innovate within the robotics industry.

  • Nvidia in talks to invest another $1 bln in humanoid robot startup Figure

    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 plans up to 530 mln yuan A-share private placement for embodied intelligence, automation projects

    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.

  • ByteDance preparing AI model for real-time spatial video

    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 to invest over $100 mln in Indiana robotics manufacturing plant

    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 embodied AI startup Knowin raises several hundred mln yuan in angel+++ round

    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.

  • iMa.ai raises $150 mln Series C at $1.45 bln valuation

    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.
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