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robotics foundation models

Generalist AI raises $400 million to scale robot intelligence platform

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Generalist AI, a startup developing foundation models for robotics, has raised $400 million in new funding as it seeks to accelerate the development of what it calls “physical AGI” – artificial general intelligence capable of operating in the physical world through robots.

The funding round values the company at approximately $2 billion and brings its total capital raised to more than $500 million.

The round was led by Radical Ventures, with participation from 8VC, Union Square Ventures, Hanabi Capital and Norwest. Existing investors including Nvidia’s NVentures, Boldstart Ventures, Spark Capital, Bezos Expeditions and NFDG also participated. [Read more…] about Generalist AI raises $400 million to scale robot intelligence platform

Genesis AI launches simulation platform to accelerate robotics development

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Genesis AI has launched Genesis World 1.0, a new robotics simulation platform designed to dramatically reduce the time required to develop, test, and evaluate robotic AI systems.

The company says the platform can compress robotics evaluation cycles from days to minutes by enabling large-scale testing in photorealistic virtual environments rather than relying solely on physical robots.

According to Genesis AI, a robotics foundation model evaluation that would typically require nearly a week of continuous testing on real hardware can be completed in approximately 30 minutes using Genesis World 1.0 running on GPU infrastructure. [Read more…] about Genesis AI launches simulation platform to accelerate robotics development

Positronic Robotics launches ‘PhAIL’ benchmark to test real-world performance of physical AI systems

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Positronic Robotics has introduced a new benchmarking initiative aimed at evaluating how well AI-driven robots perform in real-world industrial tasks, as interest grows in so-called “physical AI” systems.

The benchmark, called PhAIL (Physical AI Leaderboard), measures robotic performance using operational metrics such as units per hour and mean time between failures, rather than traditional academic indicators like task success rates. According to the company, the goal is to align evaluation methods more closely with how automation is assessed in commercial environments.

Initial testing focuses on bin-to-bin picking – a common task in logistics and manufacturing – using a standardized robotic setup. The system runs repeated trials on physical hardware, with each run recorded and published alongside telemetry and performance data. [Read more…] about Positronic Robotics launches ‘PhAIL’ benchmark to test real-world performance of physical AI systems

Rhoda AI launches with $450 million Series A to ‘bring robots out of the lab and Into the real world’

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Rhoda AI has announced its public launch after 18 months in stealth, unveiling FutureVision, a new approach to robotic intelligence based on video-predictive control and designed to operate beyond controlled laboratory demonstrations and into real-world environments.

The company also announced it has raised $450 million in Series A funding to accelerate development and industrial deployment.

Traditional industrial robots perform well in structured environments but remain largely limited to pre-programmed trajectories. More recent AI approaches – particularly vision-language-action (VLA) models – allow robots to learn from data and have demonstrated impressive results in laboratory settings. [Read more…] about Rhoda AI launches with $450 million Series A to ‘bring robots out of the lab and Into the real world’

RLWRLD raises $26 million, bringing total funding to $41 million

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RLWRLD, a physical AI company developing robotics foundation models – software intelligence trained directly in real industrial environments – has closed a Seed 2 funding round, bringing its total seed investment to approximately $41 million.

The latest round raised approximately $26 million, following a $15 million Seed 1 round. The company said the new funding was driven not solely by capital needs but by a strategic push to expand its coalition of industry-based strategic investors (SIs) as demand for collaborative deployments accelerates.

The Seed 2 round includes financial investors Headline Asia, a Silicon Valley-based global venture capital firm, and Z Venture Capital Corporation, the corporate venture arm of Z Holdings – the merged entity of Yahoo Japan and LINE. [Read more…] about RLWRLD raises $26 million, bringing total funding to $41 million