This Week's Good Reads

Physical Intelligence (π) — Moravec's Paradox and the Robot Olympics

‍Physical Intelligence uses Moravec’s paradox to explain why “easy” human tasks (like doors, laundry, and sandwich making) are still brutally hard for robots, then shares early results from a “Robot Olympics” battery of everyday manipulation challenges using a fine-tuned π foundation model. Read the post.

‍Bloomberg — China’s Tsinghua University Is Beating the US in the Race for AI Patents

Bloomberg profiles Tsinghua University’s surge in AI/ML patenting and how its IP pipeline feeds startups and China’s broader AI push—while noting the US still tends to dominate on the most influential patents and frontier model leadership. Read on Bloomberg.

Gizmodo — Something Is Making Humanoid Robot Makers Worry: The Robots Suck

Gizmodo summarizes candid talk from the Humanoids Summit: builders fear humanoids are being overhyped as “products,” with real deployments dominated by safety, integration, and reliability work—raising the risk of pricey early launches that disappoint customers. Read the article.

Robotics Companies Funding

• Booster Robotics – Undisclosed, strategic / follow-on investment (date not stated in source), backed by Shoucheng Holdings / Shoucheng Capital (Tracxn). Beijing-based humanoid robotics startup (T1, K1) focused on deployments across research, education and events.
• RideFlux – $13.9 M, Pre-IPO round (29 Dec 2025), led by Atinum Investment with Korea Development Bank joining (PitchBook). Korea-based autonomous-driving company working on driverless services and hub-to-hub freight.
• Square Robot – Undisclosed, Series B round (23 Dec 2025), strategic investment by Marathon Petroleum (PitchBook). Boston-based robotics company for in-service inspection of above-ground storage tanks.
• Comau – €50 M, R&D financing facility (debt) (23 Dec 2025), provided by the European Investment Bank under InvestEU/TechEU (PitchBook). Italian industrial automation & robotics company funding multi-year R&D in advanced automation and digital manufacturing.
• Kargo.ai – $42 M, Series B round (22 Dec 2025), led by Avenir (PitchBook). San Francisco-based computer-vision “dock door” platform (AI towers + forklift kit) turning pallet/freight images into structured warehouse data.
• Noitom Robotics – Undisclosed, Pre-A+ round (22 Dec 2025), led by Qiming Venture Partners. Beijing-based embodied-AI “data factory” spun out of motion-capture company Noitom, focused on multimodal data for robot learning.

Robotics News

• LG Electronics seeks growth momentum with humanoid robots — LG is accelerating its humanoid-robot push and plans to debut its humanoid home robot “LG CLOiD” at CES 2026 as it looks for new growth engines beyond its core TV and appliance businesses. The Korea Times
• Waymo is testing Gemini as an in-car AI assistant in its robotaxis — App-code findings suggest Waymo is piloting a Gemini-powered ride assistant that can answer rider questions and control some in-cabin functions; Waymo also notes it has used Gemini “world knowledge” in its AV development workflow. TechCrunch
• Nvidia buying AI chip startup Groq for about $20 billion, biggest deal — CNBC reports Nvidia is pursuing a roughly $20B deal centered on Groq’s inference-chip technology and team (with a structure described elsewhere as licensing and key hires), underscoring the intensifying competition to run AI models efficiently at scale. CNBC
• US bars imports of new models of DJI, all other foreign drones — The FCC is barring approvals for imports/sales of new models of foreign-made drones and critical components (including DJI and Autel) by adding them to its “Covered List,” while previously authorized models already in use are not affected. Reuters
• Oracle at Center of Tech’s $500 Billion AI-Fueled Rent Spree — Bloomberg reports that major cloud firms (including Oracle, Microsoft and Meta) have collectively committed about $500B in data-center lease obligations, highlighting the scale of infrastructure buildout driven by AI compute demand. Bloomberg
• Eve Energy breaks ground on sodium battery headquarters and robotics center — Eve Energy began construction on a sodium-ion battery HQ project (about RMB 1B investment; planned 2 GWh annual capacity) that also includes a large AI & robotics center spanning robotics R&D through mass production. CnEVPost
• Doosan Sells Robotics Stake for SK Siltron Funds — Doosan decided to sell 18.05% of its stake in Doosan Robotics for 947.7B won, aiming to secure funds as it pursues the acquisition of SK Siltron. The Chosun Daily
• Solo GP Kevin Costa closes $20m fund to invest in AI, robotics and infrastructure — Belief Capital announced a $20M final close to back pre-seed/seed startups in Europe and the US, with a focus on AI, robotics and infrastructure (including a robotics-fleet connectivity startup in its early portfolio). Sifted

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