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3 clusters · 14 sources · 14 days · First seen · Last updated

Robotics and embodied AI industry investment

Overview

The robotics and embodied AI sector is seeing significant investment and infrastructure development. SoftBank Group is negotiating to acquire a majority stake in 1X Technologies, an OpenAI-backed developer of humanoid robots, in a deal that could value the startup at approximately $6 billion. This move follows SoftBank’s acquisition of ABB’s robotics unit and reflects a strategy to integrate artificial intelligence with physical robotics.

Concurrently, the data infrastructure required for these technologies is expanding. XDOF, a San Mateo-based startup founded in late 2024 by researchers from UC Berkeley, is in advanced discussions for a Series B funding round. The round, which may be led by 8VC, is expected to value the company at approximately $1.2 billion.

XDOF provides data pipelines, teleoperation tools, and annotation systems to help AI labs and robotics firms collect high-quality motion data for physical tasks. Following a $70 million Series A round in June 2026, the company has seen rapid growth, with annualized revenue reportedly approaching $50 million. The company has also contributed to the field through open-source initiatives, such as the ABC-130K dataset for bimanual robot manipulations. The rising valuation of such firms reflects an industry-wide trend where high-quality movement data has become a critical bottleneck for humanoid robot development, driving massive investments in data infrastructure and large-scale GPU scaling partnerships.

Entities

8VC · XDOF · ABB · Masayoshi Son · Thrive Capital

Timeline

  1. 3 days ago

    [TECHNOLOGY] 2 sources
    XDOF seeks $1.2 billion valuation in Series B funding round

    Robotics startup XDOF is seeking Series B funding at a projected $1.2 billion valuation to address the growing demand for high-quality motion data used in training humanoid robots.

  2. 7 days ago

    [BUSINESS] 4 sources
    XDOF in talks for $1.2 billion valuation in Series B funding round

    Robotics data startup XDOF is in talks for a Series B funding round at a $1.2 billion valuation, driven by rapid revenue growth and high demand for embodied AI training data.

  3. 16 days ago

    [BUSINESS] 10 sources
    SoftBank negotiates $6 billion majority stake in 1X Technologies

    SoftBank is negotiating to acquire a majority stake in OpenAI-backed humanoid robot maker 1X Technologies in a deal valued at roughly $6 billion.

Sources

ad-hoc-news.de · bitcoinethereumnews.com · crypto.news · cryptobriefing.com · cryptonomist.ch · cryptopolitan.com · ekoturk.com · espiganoticias.net · finanzen.ch · ipaddisti.it · it-boltwise.de · sbctv.gr · techcrunch.com · zentrum-der-gesundheit.de

This summary has been updated 1 time: see revision history