Driven by acute labor shortages, Japan is scaling physical AI deployments in factories and warehouses, aiming for 30% of the global physical AI market.

Jeff Bezos is reportedly seeking to raise a $100 billion fund through Project Prometheus to acquire industrial companies in sectors such as chipmaking, defense, and aerospace, and overhaul them using advanced AI models trained on real-world physical data.

Palo Alto-based Rhoda AI secured $450 million in Series A funding led by Premji Invest, reaching a $1.7 billion valuation, to develop foundational robotics models trained on publicly available internet videos using its 'Direct Video Action' approach—aiming to give robots the generalization ability that teleoperation alone cannot provide.

AMI Labs, the Paris-based AI startup co-founded by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun after he left Meta, has raised $1.03 billion at a $3.5 billion pre-money valuation to develop world models—AI systems that learn from physical reality rather than language alone.

NEURA Robotics and Qualcomm have announced a strategic partnership to integrate Qualcomm's Snapdragon AI platforms into NEURA's humanoid robots, accelerating the development of physical AI and real-world cognitive robotics capabilities.

Politico reports that South Korea leads the world in AI optimism, with only 16% of citizens concerned about AI versus 50% in the US, driven by demographic pressures and a tech-first culture.

Chinese tech giant Alibaba announces RynnBrain, a new AI model designed specifically for robotics applications, marking the company's push into physical AI and autonomous systems development.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced that the 'ChatGPT moment' for physical AI has arrived, unveiling the company's Alpamayo technology for autonomous vehicles at CES 2026. Huang predicts that robotaxis will be among the first to benefit from AI models that enable ubiquitous driverless cars, targeting a projected $13.6 trillion market by 2030.

Boston Dynamics demonstrated its Atlas humanoid robot conducting tasks at Hyundai's new Georgia factory on 60 Minutes, showcasing how AI is enabling advanced manufacturing automation. The company is reuniting with Google DeepMind to enhance Atlas with Gemini Robotics foundation models, following $4.6 billion in humanoid robot investments in 2025.

Microsoft announces first robotics model combining language, vision, and touch sensing to enable robots to operate in unstructured environments beyond factory floors.

As the world embraces a new generation of AI-powered robotics, experts warn that Canada is falling behind in adoption, ceding leadership to countries like China.

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicts the next trillion-dollar AI wave will be in 'Physical AI'—systems that interact with the real world, with companies like 51WORLD leading the charge.