Silicon Valley's new slogan: Let's get physical

• Startups, Big Tech, and research labs are all ramping up their robotics efforts.
• Robotics and physical AI companies have raised more than $23 billion so far this year.
• Nvidia unveiled a humanoid robot blueprint, and OpenAI is ramping up robotics hiring.

Meta, too, is bolstering its robotics efforts. Last month, the company acquired humanoid robotics startup Assured Robot Intelligence for an undisclosed sum. The startup was building AI models for humanoid robots, and its team joined Meta’s AI unit, Superintelligence Labs.

The big wildcard is Tesla. Elon Musk has repeatedly described Optimus as central to Tesla’s future, but the company has disclosed few details about the humanoid robot’s progress. Musk said at the World Economic Forum earlier this year that Tesla would probably sell Optimus robots to the public by the end of 2027 and that the robots were already doing simple tasks at Tesla’s factories.

Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics is also pushing toward industrial use, with Hyundai planning to deploy tens of thousands of Atlas humanoids in its factories by 2028. Agility Robotics is further along in commercial deployments. Its Digit humanoid has been deployed with customers including Amazon, GXO, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre.