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robot foundation models

X Square Robot builds a full-stack approach to embodied AI and general-purpose robotics

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The rapid growth of embodied artificial intelligence is reshaping the robotics industry, with companies racing to develop machines capable of performing a wide variety of real-world tasks rather than being programmed for a single application.

Among the companies attracting significant attention is Shenzhen-based X Square Robot, which recently completed four consecutive financing rounds culminating in a Series C investment.

The company is now valued over RMB20 billion and says the new funding will accelerate development of its embodied AI foundation models, robotics hardware, data infrastructure and commercial deployments. [Read more…] about X Square Robot builds a full-stack approach to embodied AI and general-purpose robotics

From backflips to folding laundry: How X Square Robot is building the missing ‘brain’ for embodied AI

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While robotics companies around the world continue to showcase humanoids performing backflips, running obstacle courses, and dancing on stage, one Chinese firm is pursuing a more difficult – and arguably more consequential – goal: teaching robots to operate in the messy, unpredictable environments where people actually live and work.

According to X Square Robot founder and CEO Wang Qian, the industry’s hardware foundations are largely in place. Humanoid locomotion, dexterous hands, and force-control systems have all advanced rapidly. The remaining challenge is intelligence.

“The hardware is largely there,” Wang said. “The real bottleneck is the brain.” [Read more…] about From backflips to folding laundry: How X Square Robot is building the missing ‘brain’ for embodied AI

RLWRLD unveils ‘dexterity-first’ foundation model for humanoid robots

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RLWRLD, a physical AI company developing robotics foundation models for dexterous manipulation, unveiled RLDX-1 at “Dexterity Night in SF”, introducing a model designed to help humanoid robots perform contact-rich tasks such as grasping, pouring and tool use.

The company also reported benchmark results across humanoid tabletop, kitchen manipulation and real-world coffee-pouring evaluations, and said the model runs across multiple robot embodiments including WIRobotics’ Allex humanoid, Franka Research 3 and OpenArm.

At the launch event, Amit Goel, head of robotics ecosystem and edge AI product at Nvidia, took the stage and said: “RLWRLD is one of the core partners in the physical AI ecosystem we are building at Nvidia.” [Read more…] about RLWRLD unveils ‘dexterity-first’ foundation model for humanoid robots

Agibot unveils new generation of embodied AI robots and models for real-world deployment

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Agibot has unveiled a new generation of embodied AI robots and foundation models, signaling what the company describes as a shift toward large-scale deployment of “physical AI” across industrial and commercial environments.

The announcements were made at the company’s 2026 Partner Conference, where Agibot introduced multiple robotic platforms and AI systems built around its “One Robotic Body, Three Intelligences” architecture, designed to integrate motion, manipulation, and human interaction into a unified system.

Peng Zhihui, co-founder, president and CTO of Agibot, said the industry is moving beyond experimentation toward practical deployment. [Read more…] about Agibot unveils new generation of embodied AI robots and models for real-world deployment

RoboForce raises $52 million to build physical AI robots for industrial work

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RoboForce, a pioneer in what is being called “physical AI-powered robo-labor”, has secured a $52 million oversubscribed funding round, bringing the total raised to $67 million.

The round was led by YZi Labs (a $10 billion fund) with participation from Jerry Yang (co-founder and former CEO of Yahoo!), who join existing investors Myron Scholes (Nobel Laureate economist), Gary Rieschel (founding partner of Qiming Ventures), Carnegie Mellon University, and beyond.

The new capital will accelerate the company’s next-generation robot foundation model, scale general-purpose physical AI robots, and drive manufacturing readiness for commercial deployment. [Read more…] about RoboForce raises $52 million to build physical AI robots for industrial work

Robbyant open-sources LingBot-VLA model as a ‘universal brain’ for robots

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Robbyant, an embodied AI company within Alibaba affiliate Ant Group, has announced the open-source release of LingBot-VLA, a vision-language-action (VLA) model designed to serve as a “universal brain” for real-world robotics, which “helps reduce post-training costs and accelerate the path to scalable deployment”, according to the company.

So far, LingBot-VLA has been successfully adapted to robots from leading manufacturers, including Galaxea Dynamics and AgileX Robotics, demonstrating strong cross-morphology transfer capabilities across diverse robot platforms.

The model’s performance was evaluated on the GM-100 benchmark, a comprehensive evaluation suite open-sourced by Shanghai Jiao Tong University that comprises 100 real-world tasks. [Read more…] about Robbyant open-sources LingBot-VLA model as a ‘universal brain’ for robots

Ambi Robotics expands physical AI platform

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Ambi Robotics, a provider of AI-powered robotics for commercial operations, has introduced AI Skill Suite powered by AmbiOS.

The company is expanding its operating system for Physical AI by offering a growing library of reliable, production-proven 3D AI robot applications for licensing by trusted partners.

This initiative allows Ambi’s operationally-validated AI to be deployed across a wide range of industries and third-party hardware use-cases. [Read more…] about Ambi Robotics expands physical AI platform

Toyota Research Institute unveils breakthrough in Large Behavior Models that requires ‘80 percent less data’

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Toyota Research Institute (TRI) has unveiled promising results from a large-scale study on a new class of AI systems called Large Behavior Models (LBMs), which could significantly accelerate the development of general-purpose robots capable of adapting to real-world tasks.

The research, published today, shows that a single LBM can learn hundreds of manipulation tasks and apply that knowledge to new challenges with up to 80 percent less data compared to traditional approaches.

This marks a potential shift in how robots are trained, enabling them to generalize from diverse experiences rather than being hardcoded for specific tasks. [Read more…] about Toyota Research Institute unveils breakthrough in Large Behavior Models that requires ‘80 percent less data’