The 2026 Shutdown List: Nine Robot Companies, Four Ways to Die in the Same Place
Sarah Xiao Nine shutdowns against roughly 93.5 billion yuan raised in six months. The four failure modes behind them, the K-Scale unit…
Robot Data Reports
From ¥300 to ¥995 in 27 Days: What JPMorgan’s Unitree Flip Actually Prices In
Two notes, one unchanged 30x multiple, and a 169% volume revision for 2028. Decomposing the target price, and why the…
The Layer Below the Robots Is Getting Funded
Ten Chinese embodied-AI rounds in seven days and almost none went to a new full-body OEM — chips, joints, data…
Returns Are Harder Than Picking
Sereact's Cortex model runs at Zalando and CEVA because a returned garment cannot be pre-programmed. Plus JD's dual-arm bionic robot…
Pay by the Hour: the RaaS Number That Reprices a Robot
750,000 hours of live production is the asset, not the $50M. What robots-as-a-service changes about how a factory buys automation…
Embodied AI Funding, September 2026: Big Rounds Cool, Money Moves Up the Chain
September saw 49 embodied AI deals but only two above RMB 1B. Where the capital went — sensors, seed rounds,…
The Big Four at 38%: Thirty Years of Rule, Repriced
Thirty years of dominance, now 38% of the global market. Four divergent paths, the component story behind China's 55% domestic…
China Says It Built 40,000 Humanoids in Six Months. Read the Number Carefully.
Over 400 models and 40,000 units in six months. Why the number sits awkwardly against 36,000 global shipments, and what…
Cable-Driven Humanoids: What a Tendon Does to the BOM
Astribot's RMB 15bn valuation rests on tendons instead of harmonic reducers. What that changes for reducer, tendon and force-sensor suppliers.
CIIF 2026 Signal: Force-Controlled Arms Beat Biped Demos — and the Money Agrees
CIIF 2026's bipeds stayed home — wheeled force-controlled arms ran real workcells, and FAIRINO's RMB 1B round backs the shift.…