Robotics Special: Apptronik triples valuation to $5.3B

Welcome back, Superhuman. Few chores feel more boring and soul-sucking than folding your clothes. Now, a Bay Area startup claims to have solved that problem, opening up pre-orders for a stationary, laundry-folding robot. The robot costs less than a used car — a sign that robots are inching towards practical home applications.

WHAT’S NEXT

The most important news and breakthroughs in robotics this week

1. New laundry-folding robot costs as much as a used car: Bay Area startup Weave Robotics has opened pre-orders for Isaac 0, a stationary robot that tackles one of the day’s most annoying chores. For about $8,000, you can get yourself a robot that takes 30-90 minutes to fold a load of laundry. Although it can't handle large blankets, bed sheets, or inside-out clothes yet, and human teleoperators still step in for trickier folds, it’s a big step forward in bringing high-end robotics to households. Watch it in action here.

2. Humanoid maker Apptronik triples valuation to $5.3B: University of Texas spinout Apptronik has picked up another $520M, bringing its extended Series A to an eye-watering $935M. The company, which builds humanoid robots for Google DeepMind, Mercedes-Benz, and logistics giant GXO, is now valued at $5.3B, roughly triple its initial valuation of $1.75B a year ago.

3. Hungarian startup that "weaves" robots like rope raises $7.2M: Budapest-based Allonic has announced that it has closed a pre-seed funding round at $7.2M to industrialize its biomimetic robotics platform. The company weaves soft, load-bearing tendons and joints around a 3D-printed skeleton in a single automated process. Allonic plans to scale to building full bodies soon, positioning itself as customizable infrastructure for robot makers. See the innovative design in action here.

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ROBOTS IN ACTION

How robots are transforming the world around us

Robo Patrol: Mexican police are deploying quadruped robots to walk the beat during the 2026 World Cup. The K9-X units can enter risky environments, stream live video, and "issue" voice commands to suspects before human officers arrive. It's part of a broader security push that includes drones and counter-drone tech for crowd control.

Fusion Force: The world's largest fusion energy project is using a 13-foot-tall, experimental robotic assistant named Godzilla. Widely considered the most powerful industrial model commercially available, it can lift 2.5 tons and is testing tools that will eventually install 20,000 components inside the tokamak's vacuum vessel.

Reflex Reaction: Scientists claim to have built a chip that helps self-driving cars detect danger 4x faster than humans. The hardware "reflex" system uses a synaptic transistor array that filters out irrelevant visual data. In real-world tests, the system reportedly cut reaction time by 0.2 seconds, potentially reducing braking distance by 14 feet.

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

Everything else you need to know this week

Here are the biggest developments in the robotics space that you should know about:

• Boston Dynamics CEO Robert Playter is stepping down after 30 years, marking the end of an era for the robotics pioneer behind Spot and Atlas.

• Waymo has picked up $16B in funding to expand its robotaxi service across the US and abroad, following a 90% drop in serious injury crashes.

• Uber will roll out robotaxi services in Hong Kong, Madrid, Houston, and Zurich as it pushes to operate driverless rides in 10+ global markets by the end of 2026.

• Chinese scientists have developed a 1.5mm insect-inspired sensor that gives robots 180-degree vision and a built-in “bionic nose” to detect hazardous gases.

• Agibot hosted “Agibot Night 2026”, a 60-minute gala billed as the world’s first large live show performed entirely by humanoid robots.

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ROBOT OF THE WEEK

A robot that caught our eye this week

Those long walks don’t have to feel so long. 

The Moonwalkers Aero are robotic shoes by Shift Robotics that can wheel you around at speeds of up to 7 mph. The 4.3-pound shoes strap onto your existing footwear and automatically adjust power based on your walking pace, with F1-inspired air intakes to keep the motors cool.

You can check them out here.

ROBO REEL

Watch: Humanoid robots practice kung fu alongside Shaolin monks in viral video

The only thing more surprising than robots doing kung fu is that they seem to be doing it better than some humans.

A viral video has been doing the rounds on social media, showing Shanghai-based AgiBot’s Lingxi X2 humanoids performing synchronized martial arts sequences alongside monks at the historic Shaolin Temple. The symbolic pairing of centuries-old kung fu traditions with cutting-edge robotics has sparked both amazement and unease online.

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Zain, Faiq and the Superhuman AI team