News
In Japan, the robot isn't coming for your job; it's filling the one nobody wants
21+ hour, 23+ min ago (800+ words) The first StrictlyVC of 2026 lands in San Francisco on April 30. Tickets are limited. Register here. Physical AI is emerging as one of the next major industrial battlegrounds, with Japan's push driven more by necessity than anything else. With workforces shrinking…...
Startup funding shatters all records in Q1
4+ day, 14+ hour ago (269+ words) The first StrictlyVC of 2026 lands in San Francisco on April 30. Tickets are limited. Register here. Global investing in startups hit $297 billion in Q1 2026, breaking all records, according to new Crunchbase data. That's a massive 2.5x increase over the $118 billion raised in the…...
It’s not your imagination: AI seed startups are commanding higher valuations
5+ day, 9+ hour ago (1315+ words) Pete Martin remembers raising a $5 million seed round at a $25 million post-money valuation for his AI-powered cybersecurity company Realm way back in 2024, aka, like a thousand "AI years" ago." That valuation seemed high for that amount at the time, he…...
Physical Intelligence is reportedly in talks to raise $1 billion, again
1+ week, 2+ day ago (581+ words) Loizos has been reporting on Silicon Valley since the late "90s, when she joined the original Red Herring magazine. Previously the Silicon Valley Editor of TechCrunch, she was named Editor in Chief and General Manager of TechCrunch in September 2023. She"s…...
Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child
1+ week, 4+ day ago (405+ words) At a press conference at the White House on Wednesday, First Lady Melania Trump showed up with a humanoid robot developed by robotics firm Figure AI. The duo waltzed down a red carpet together before the bot gave a brief…...
Lucid Bots raises $20M to keep up with demand for its window-washing drones
1+ week, 5+ day ago (631+ words) Andrew Ashur, the founder and CEO of window cleaning robot startup Lucid Bots, likes to joke that his company is the antithesis of the robotics industry right now. While many companies are trying to build humanoids or tout demos of…...
Amazon just bought a startup making kid-size humanoid robots
1+ week, 5+ day ago (193+ words) Amazon has confirmed that it has acquired Fauna Robotics, a two-year-old startup founded by former Meta and Google engineers who are developing kid-size humanoid robots. The acquisition was first reported by Bloomberg. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. What we…...
Agile Robots becomes the latest robotics company to partner with Google DeepMind
1+ week, 5+ day ago (403+ words) Agile Robots has landed a partnership with Google DeepMind to develop robots with the artificial intelligence research lab, the latest in a string of robotics company to do so. Munich, Germany-based Agile Robots announced it entered into a strategic research…...
Emil Michael, now a senior Pentagon official, says he'll never forgive Uber investors who ousted him and Kalanick
1+ week, 6+ day ago (451+ words) Emil Michael, who serves as a senior technology official at the Department of Defense, is back in the spotlight over the government's ongoing battle with Anthropic, and a newly released podcast interview offers one of the most detailed looks yet…...
CES 2026: Follow live for the best, weirdest, most interesting tech as this robot and AI-heavy event wraps up
3+ mon, 19+ hour ago (1259+ words) CES 2026 isn't over until Friday, and we're here in the thick of it. This is the part of the show when a lot of the news is out of the way and folks spend their time taking meetings, hopefully making…...