Global Robotics Landscape 2025
Humanoids, and the anthropomorphization of everything. 🤖
Good Morning,
It’s impossible to talk about AI without witnessing and exploring its physical manifestation in the world. This will be more true in the 2030s I suspect, than the 2020s, but we are starting to see nascent signs of new kinds of hardware and software possibilities and a synergy with machine learning & world models using synthetic data.
If you use the Substack app or on desktop, follow this publication on Notes. I enjoy sharing robotics news and videos of recent prototypes and demos.
So how does AI get a body, and why does it matter to civilization? I am of course referring to robotics, sometimes also termed Physical AI. Humanoids is the term to denote bipedal robots that are meant to interact with people at work and later, in the home. These robots will change society in potentially a more tangible way than Generative AI chatbots have in recent times. These are the wonder-years of embodied AI.
🌊 “If you read only one report or article on Robotics in 2025, this would be a good one to catch to get fully up to date on the innovations taking place in the space.”
I’m not just an AI enthusiast, I’m an emerging tech analyst. Like I had predicted, 2025 is shaping up to be an important year for the emergence of robotics and humanoid robots in particular.
and her focus group are looking into Generative AI and Robotics for me and how this trend is continuing in 2025. is covering Physical AI and covered robotics companies like Unitree, more on the East Asia side. China is incredible in robotics which we will get more into in a future article.🤖 Apptronik recently raised $350 million, highlighting the ongoing interest in humanoid robot technologies.
🍎 Apple and Meta are now getting into the robotics market more seriously as I covered in my Newsletter, OK Robot recently.
OK, Robot
In 2025, Apple is actively exploring the development of humanoid and non-humanoid robots as part of its future technology initiatives, particularly aimed at enhancing smart home applications. Amazon is on the cusp of doing so as well including pioneering E-commerce warehouse automation with companies like JD.com, which started to do so all the way back in 2014.
Nvidia’s Earnings this week and upcoming GTC event on March 17th, will also signal new advances in robotics, follow Jim Fan for specific details. As AI startups and frontier model makers race to anthropomorphize chatbots and AI agents, humanoids that do the same could be lucrative consumer home devices as their prices begin to decline, and their capabilities begin to grow and their use cases to automate tasks and save us time begins to multiply.
Our guest writer today Diana writes the Newsletter, Deep Learning with the Wolf, and is increasing getting into robotics and emerging tech coverage.
Today’s Article Summary (Global report on Robotics)
Diana is one of my favorite journalists and freelancers really knowledgeable about robots.
Deep Learning with the Wolf
According to Bloomberg, Meta wants to get into AI, sensors, and software for humanoid robots realizing the opportunity. After spending nearly $100 Billion in recent years on AR/VR tech, I suppose Meta’s Reality Labs division needs to do something useful for Enterprise AI revenue and ambitions.
Gamma Neo by 1X
Four days ago, 1X introduced their NEO Gamma humanoid robot. 1X is a Norwegian robotics startup.
NEO Gamma can walk naturally, pick up objects, and interact using body language and conversation.
1X sees real-world home testing as crucial for developing intelligent, adaptable humanoids.
The company is racing against competitors like Figure, Tesla, and Agility, which have prioritized industrial applications. I like the “soft aesthetics” of NEO Gamma that feels less intrusive.
It’s hard for me to visualize what kind of a humanoid robot I’d want in my home, but thankfully the prototypes all sort of look a little different from each other in 2025. But they will soon be able to do much more as their models and capabilities improve.
The explosion of funding and innovation in robotics is something akin to a 'ChatGPT' Robotics Moment in 2025 where we may in the coming years so an inflection point for humanoid robotics. We should hit this by 2027 or the late 2020s in my view.
There are many names in the field that you might not have heard of yet. Field AI, a robotics startup supported by Nvidia, is currently in discussions to raise funds that could potentially increase its valuation to $2 billion. We are however so absurdly early in the field of robotics, even on the stock market there aren’t yet that many good names to invest in. Surgical robotics companies certainly seem to be early in the game, if investing in emerging tech is your thing.
Robotics Startups are Building their own Models
Overview of Helix
Recently Figure AI released Helix. Helix is a groundbreaking generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model aimed at enhancing the capabilities of humanoid robots. This innovative model integrates perception, language understanding, and learned control, allowing robots to perform various tasks with greater efficiency and adaptability.
Figure built Helix, a generalist Vision-Language-Action (VLA) model, entirely in-house and end-to-end. Their videos are worth checking out.
China continues to rapidly experiment with greater mobility in robots, even as the West continues to fund lucrative humanoid robotics startups with global ambitions. China’s cost advantages in manufacturing robots gives them a huge advantage. Meanwhile, Nvidia seems to be developing important capabilities to spur robots to the next level of utility.
The last article in our robotics series was very well received:
Genesis and Robotics Leaders
Diana’s last report on this Newsletter was one of the most widely read pieces on Substack in robotics in recent months:
What about Robotics by Country?
Today we continue this survey with global perspectives. When we talk about future leaders and companies that don’t yet exist, the leading robotics companies of tomorrow could be one day more lucrative than OpenAI or Anthropic. OpenAI have flirted with robotics as well, but are more likely to acquire a leading startup than build anything in-house that will be competitive.
With Apple and Meta getting robot curious, Tesla and leading robotics startups may be catalyst for a new hype boom in Humanoid general purpose robots, the holy grail of robotics.
What will the world look like when humanoid robots are more common and as their AI capabilities keep improving at a rapid rate?
Autonomous Ship Building 🚢
I also have to mention eight days ago, Saronic raised $600 million to build AI automated ships - autonomous shipbuilding. Saronic Technologies announced that it has closed a Series C round of $600 million, bringing its valuation to $4 billion. The company said its valuation quadrupled in the seven months since it attained “unicorn” status in July 2024.
The U.S. is striving to catch up to China in autonomous surface vessels. The drone, military robot and Anduril’s efforts are also part of the robotics umbrella in the increasing automation of the military. America’s armed forces are going to look different soon. National security competition also plays a not insignificant role in spurring robotics innovation.
🌎 Global Robotics Landscape 2025
In this report,
will break down initiatives by region and country in robotics.She outlines how cultural perspectives influence how we are building these humanoids.
She explore the regional differences in innovation around robotics and who some of the leaders are.
Diana introduces the national characteristics of robotics innovation by country in a holistic way that I’ve frankly never seen before! Different countries need robots to solve different sorts of social problems unique to their region and aligned with their cultural values.
Learn about humanoid robots in China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, U.K., Israel, France, Netherlands, USA, etc..
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