🦾 HardTech Reads: The AI & Robotics Revolution vol.44
Welcome to the exploration of the world where founders embark on bold quests and solve non-obvious problems🤘
👷 Gen Z shifts to trades, 📉 U.S. factory PMI falls, 🚀 NASA + Google build AI doctor, 🔋 Tesla focuses AI chips + robotaxi in Texas, 🍕 Pinkbot delivery bots hit the road, ⚛️ IBM + Google race for quantum supremacy, 🤖 Apple plans AI robots + $100B U.S. manufacturing push, 🌞 China turns electrostate, 🏭 Ford reinvents EV assembly line, 🧈 Gates backs carbon-made butter, 🧠 Nvidia launches Cosmos AI for robotics, 💸 SiMa.ai + Cohere + Armada + more raise billions
🚀 HARDTECH NEWS: Robotics & AI Innovations
Gen Z Embraces Blue-Collar Futures
A survey of U.S. Gen Z workers found that 72% expect AI to decimate entry-level corporate jobs within the next five years. Many young workers are now turning toward trades, healthcare, and other sectors seen as more resilient in the face of automation. This generational pivot signals a major redefinition of career paths and could accelerate investment into vocational training and industrial jobs.
U.S. manufacturing slowdown continues
The U.S. manufacturing PMI fell to 48.0 in July, marking five consecutive months of contraction. Factory employment hit its lowest level since mid-2020, with 26,000 manufacturing jobs lost in May–June alone.
Although some metrics remain expansionary, forward indicators such as new orders and employment suggest weak demand and margin pressures ahead. This contraction highlights the urgency of reindustrialization strategies.
👉 Learn more.
NASA & Google Build AI Doctor for Deep Space
NASA is partnering with Google to develop an AI-powered Crew Medical Officer Digital Assistant (CMO-DA) to support astronauts on Moon and Mars missions without real-time Earth guidance. Early trials show up to 88% diagnostic accuracy on common conditions like ankle injuries and ear pain, and future upgrades will integrate medical device data and microgravity-specific training. This technology could become the cornerstone of autonomous healthcare in extreme environments.
👉 Learn more.
Tesla Refocuses AI Chip Development
Tesla announced it will streamline efforts around its AI5, AI6, and future inference chips, discontinuing its earlier Dojo supercomputer team. Elon Musk emphasized that splitting resources across multiple designs slowed progress, and the new roadmap aligns Tesla’s chip ambitions with its robotics and self-driving push. These chips are expected to power next-gen vehicles, humanoids, and broader AI systems.
👉 Learn more.
Pinkbot Rolls Out V5 Delivery Robots
Miami- and Toronto-based Pinkbot (formerly Tiny Mile) launched its fifth-generation delivery robots, now capable of carrying a large pizza, moving three times faster, and — after 30 months of R&D — operating legally on-road. The company is now competing head-to-head with heavyweight players like Nuro, despite its lighter capitalization. This milestone marks a breakthrough for smaller robotics startups aiming to scale urban mobility. 👉 Learn more.
IBM, Google, and IonQ Race Toward Scalable Quantum
IBM unveiled a new blueprint using low-density parity-check codes, claiming it can cut qubit requirements by 90% compared to Google’s surface-code method. Google, meanwhile, continues error-correction progress, while IonQ raised $1 billion to target 2 million physical qubits by 2030. Investors rallied across the sector after Nvidia’s CEO hailed quantum as the next trillion-dollar opportunity. The quantum race is heating up, with competing paths to practical machines by the decade’s end.
👉 Learn more.
Apple Expands Into AI Robots & Home Devices
Apple is developing a tabletop robot companion powered by conversational Siri, alongside new smart home devices like security cameras and display speakers. The company is also planning a major $100B increase in U.S. manufacturing investment, reinforcing its domestic AI infrastructure strategy. Together, these efforts highlight Apple’s ambition to position itself as a central player in robotics and physical AI at home.
👉 Learn more.
China’s Economy Hits a Wall — but Turns Electrostate
China reported sluggish July numbers across retail, factory output, and investment, compounded by property market weakness and high U.S. tariffs averaging 43.5%. Yet, despite slowing growth, China is rapidly becoming the world’s first “electrostate” — installing record levels of solar power and pushing renewables into every sector. This duality — short-term slowdown, long-term structural pivot — underscores China’s determination to control the energy transition. 👉 Learn more.
Ford Reinvents the Assembly Line for EVs
Ford will invest $2B to transform its Louisville plant into an EV hub, launching a $30,000 pickup in 2027. To cut costs, Ford is scrapping Henry Ford’s century-old moving assembly line, instead adopting a radically reconfigured system designed for fewer parts and higher efficiency. CEO Jim Farley admitted the shift is a “bet” full of risk, but one Ford hopes will close the cost gap with Chinese EV makers. 👉 Learn more.
Tesla Secures Robotaxi Permit in Texas
Tesla obtained a permit to operate an autonomous ride-hailing service in Texas, with Elon Musk claiming coverage could reach half of the U.S. population by year-end. However, Tesla faces steep competition from Waymo and Baidu, along with federal probes and legal challenges tied to its autonomy record. The permit is nonetheless a major milestone in Tesla’s long-promised robotaxi ambitions. 👉 Learn more.
Nvidia Launches Cosmos AI for Robotics
Nvidia introduced Cosmos Reason, a vision-language model designed for robotic reasoning with memory and physics awareness. Complementary releases include synthetic data generation tools, 3D reconstruction libraries, and Omniverse simulator updates. Nvidia also rolled out new robotics hardware infrastructure, signaling its ambition to dominate physical AI just as it has with generative AI. 👉 Learn more.
Butter Made From Carbon Gets Gates’ Backing
Savor, a U.S.-based foodtech startup, is making butter directly from carbon and hydrogen, bypassing agriculture. The product is virtually indistinguishable from dairy butter, while cutting emissions and land use. Backed by Bill Gates, the company aims for consumer launch by 2027, with potential to disrupt the $50B dairy market and reshape sustainable food systems. 👉 Learn more.
Beijing store stocks humanoid robots from over 40 Chinese brands
🔬 STARTUPS TO KNOW: Game-Changers in HardTech & AI
➡️ SiMa.ai — raised $85M led by Maverick Capital, with StepStone Group and existing investors, to scale its Physical AI platform. Total funding now $355M.
➡️ QuamCore (Israel) — raised $26M Series A led by Sentinel Global, joined by Arkin Capital, Viola Ventures, Earth & Beyond Ventures, Surround Ventures, Rhodium, and Quantum Leap. Focus: quantum computing hardware.
➡️ Cohere — raised $500M led by Radical Ventures and Inovia Capital, with NVIDIA and Salesforce. Valuation: $6.8B. Focus: enterprise agentic AI.
➡️ Orbital Operations (Long Beach) — raised $8.8M Seed led by Initialized Capital, with Harpoon, DTX, Rebel Fund, TRAC, Karman Ventures, and others. Focus: orbital vehicle manufacturing.
➡️ Raise Robotics (SF) — raised $7.8M Seed led by MaC Ventures, with Undivided Ventures, Cybernetix, Zacua, and Union Labs. Focus: construction automation.
➡️ Pearl Edison (Detroit) — raised $3.3M Seed led by New System Ventures and Commonweal Ventures, with Lightbank and Newlab. Focus: residential electrification.
➡️ Edgx — raised $2.7M Seed to commercialize in-orbit compute for satcom & Earth observation.
➡️ DISA Tech — raised $30M Series A2 from Evok, CTV, Valor. Focus: mineral recovery & uranium remediation.
📚FAVORITE RESOURCES
What Would It Take to Bring Back U.S. Manufacturing?
—> Eclipse + Bridgewater explore the structural pressures holding back domestic growth.
China’s Key Robotics plans and Policies
🎤EVENTS
The 1st International Humanoid Olympiad (www.humanoidolympiad.org) will take birth at the grounds of the International Olympic Academy in Olympia, Greece, from August 29 to September 2, 2025.
Other events:
🤖 Aug 18 — RESHORE: Innovation in Water, Mobility & Outdoor Tech (Traverse City, MI)
🤖 Aug. 18–22: Intl. Conference on Automation Science & Engineering (Anaheim, CA)
🇺🇸 Sept 9–10 — Michigan Defense and Aerospace Summit (Lansing, MI)
🇺🇸 Oct 1 — Renaissance UnDemo Day (Detroit, MI)
🌱 Oct 13–15 — RECESS25 Clean Energy Summit (Detroit, MI)
🏗 Oct 6–10 — Intl. Conference on Advanced Manufacturing (Las Vegas, NV)
🤝 Oct 15–16 — RoboBusiness (Santa Clara, CA)
🇸🇬 Oct 27–29 — ROSCon (Singapore)
🌍 Oct 19–25 — IEEE IROS(Hangzhou, China)
🔧 Oct 29 — Hard Tech Summit (Ontario, Canada)
🤠 Nov 3–5 — Intl. Robot Safety Conference (Houston, TX)
🇯🇵 Dec 1–4 — Intl. Conference on Space Robotics (Sendai, Japan)
🇦🇪 Dec 8–12 — Deep Tech Week Dubai 2025
🦿 Dec 11–12 — Humanoid Summit (Silicon Valley, TBA)
🇬🇧 Mar 16–19, 2026 — Intl. Conference on Human-Robot Interaction (Edinburgh, Scotland)
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If you are interested in AI, Robotics & HardTech, check my previous posts:
❗️The VC Industry Loves Data. But Doesn’t Use It…
— Is it why it’s ‘dying’?
➡️19 Robotic Hands Startups to Watch
➡️ The world doesn’t fix itself. These startups are trying /Top 100 HardTech Startups
➡️ Will we have a chatGPT moment for Robots?
➡️ The Coming Scarcity of Humanity
➡️ The Art and Science of Venture Capital Investing
➡️ Deep Thinkers & Builders in Tech, Science and Bio
➡️ Humanoids Don’t Exist in Isolation / It Takes an Ecosystem to Bring Them to Life!
➡️ Clone Alpha: The Next Leap in Humanoid Robotics
➡️ ‘Made in China’-Robotics Market Overview
➡️ The Science of Networks: From Theory to New Realities
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