Tokio Marine launches AI robot insurance in Japan
The insurer starts selling cover for AI-driven robots in November, with premiums priced about 20 percent above those for conventional industrial robots.
All reports
ROBOTICS
Kawasaki Heavy targets autonomous humanoid robot by 2030
The group plans to pair its Kaleido android, in development since 2015, with a physical AI platform being built in Japan by Noetra.
ROBOTICS
AI Incident Channel: China and US to Alert Each Other
The two rivals in AI development plan to warn each other when systems misbehave, though the reporting path itself has not been spelled out.
ROBOTICS
Anthropic Runs Its Own Biology Lab in the Bay Area
Claude models now steer real lab instruments through an in-house protocol, as Anthropic's own staff keep warning about biological misuse.
ROBOTICS
Treble Lands $18M to Scale Voice Simulation for Robots
Paladin Capital Group leads an $18 million extension for Treble, whose physics-based acoustic models generate training audio for voice AI and robots.
ROBOTICS
AI Warfare and Autonomous Weapons: FT Investigation
Golem.de points to a Financial Times investigation into drones that search for their own targets; the piece sits behind a paywall.
ROBOTICS
SafeHarness: Coding Agents That Grasp Without Collision
A preprint reports that coding agents usually hit obstacles while grasping, and that a two-part harness lifts collision avoidance to 87.5 percent.
SECURITY
Exein raises $270M to secure robots and vehicles
The Rome-based firm hardens the operating systems of robots and cars. Its valuation jumped from $700 million in December 2025 to $1.7 billion.
ROBOTICS
Fanuc and Google build a welding robot that reads plans
The robots are meant to work straight from engineering drawings instead of code. Shipments start in December; Nikkei gives no price and no customer.
REGULATION
About 30 Robots March in Warsaw to Demand AI Rules
Roughly 30 humanoids and robot dogs circled outside Poland's digital ministry; the organizers want a public debate on AI and jobs.
ROBOTICS
AI eyes on the waste bunker: €4.3M for Jaipur Robotics
The Swiss seed round targets waste-to-energy sites: 50 million labeled images, 99 percent hazard detection — figures the company has not opened up.
ROBOTICS
Japan Airports Turn to AI and Drones for Inspections
Trading house Sumitomo leads a plan to check runways, lights and other airport infrastructure automatically, aiming to double maintenance efficiency.
ROBOTICS
Japan Plans AI Robots for Fukushima Debris Removal
Tokyo and plant operator Tepco are assembling a consortium, due to start as early as this fiscal year, to tackle 880 tons of debris in three reactors.
ROBOTICS
Hugging Face's $399 Microduck robot waddles and skates
The 25-centimeter biped lifts up to 800 grams with its beak and learns new tricks through reinforcement learning in simulation first.
ROBOTICS
Bill Gates Calls for a Global Action Plan on AI Risks
The Microsoft co-founder describes the shift to AI as one of history's most turbulent phases and wants oversight bodies instead of industry self-policing.
ROBOTICS
Generalist raises $200M at a reported $3B valuation
The extension lifts the 2024-founded startup's Series B to $600 million, just two months after a $2 billion valuation in June.
Business
General Intuition nears $6B valuation on gaming-data bet
The New York startup trains AI agents on hundreds of millions of hours of gameplay — and has nearly tripled its valuation within months.
Robotics
XPeng carves out robotics: $900 million for IRON humanoid push
The new unit Dogotix is valued at over $6.3 billion. Tencent and Alibaba are investing, and IRON mass production is set to start by the end of 2026.
Robotics
Bosch to build humanoid robots in Bühl from 2027 — at a site losing 1,100 jobs
The machines are developed by London start-up Humanoid, with Bosch as contract manufacturer. Schaeffler is the first customer. The robots are to be leased, not sold.
Robotics
A robot ran 100 metres in 9.39 seconds — faster than Bolt's world record
The opening day of the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing produced a number long treated as a human limit. The comparison is flawed — and still marks a turning point.
Research
Veeda AI Raises $90M Seed to Build World Models for Robots
Former Nvidia researcher Sanja Fidler has raised over $90 million for world-model startup Veeda AI — one of Canada's largest seed rounds ever.
Robotics
Reuters: US Military Money Paved Way for Unitree's Robot Dogs
A Reuters investigation traces how Pentagon-funded research at MIT and UPenn laid the groundwork for China's robotics star Unitree — up to its record IPO.
Mobility
Nevada approves up to 8,000 robotaxis for Las Vegas
The Nevada Transportation Authority cleared Tesla for up to 5,000 paid robotaxis, Waymo and Uber for 1,000 each, and Zoox for 100 — all in Clark County.
Everyday AI
Amazon Expands Prime Air Drone Delivery to Nearly 500 Cities
Prime Air is set to fly in nearly 500 US cities by year-end — a sixfold expansion. Autonomous drones deliver packages up to 5 lbs in 30 minutes.
Markets
Unitree goes public: opens 629 percent above offer price, briefly worth about 66 billion dollars
The Hangzhou robot maker is the first listed humanoid robotics company on the Chinese mainland. The offering was oversubscribed more than eight thousand times – a record for the Star Market.
Robotics
Unitree heads for its IPO — and turns humanoids into influencers
Dancing, kung-fu fighting robots fill social feeds while Unitree fills its books: 5,500+ humanoids shipped and a $623 million Shanghai listing.
China
Infiforce raises nearly 1 billion yuan for China's robot brain
The embodied-AI startup closes Series A and A+ rounds worth about $140 million — for a world model that learns from first-person data.
Research
Study: expressive robots lose trust faster after mistakes
Gestures and eye contact build rapport — but after errors, expressive robots' influence drops by more than half, a Science Robotics brain study shows.
Mobility
Uber and Pony.ai to Deploy Over 2,000 Robotaxis Across Europe
Uber and Pony.ai plan over 2,000 robotaxis in Europe – expanding beyond Zagreb into four more cities, with local partners running the fleets.