RSS Amplifier

Robots & Startups · Aug 15, 2026

East Bay becoming home to physical AI

0
Sign in to vote or save

Andra Keay · Robots & Startups

  • Project Prometheus (West Oakland): Co-founded by Jeff Bezos, this physical AI and “artificial general engineer” startup just leased 100,000 square feet at the American Steel Blocks site to build AI that interacts with and manufactures physical products.

  • 1X Technologies (Hayward): Operates the 58,000-square-foot “Neoactory,” a high-volume manufacturing facility dedicated to building humanoid robots like the NEO, complete with in-house component production and assembly.

  • OpenAI (Richmond): Secured a massive 202,400-square-foot industrial footprint at the Portside Commerce Center (originally prepped for Moxion Power) tailored with heavy electrical power to support robotics development and manufacturing.

  • Tesla (Fremont & Oakland): Maintains its massive vehicle and automated manufacturing footprint at the Fremont factory—geared up for large-scale Optimus humanoid robot production lines—along with autonomous fleet staging operations in Oakland.

  • Agility Robotics (Fremont): Operates a 60,000 sq ft advanced hardware R&D and engineering campus focused on humanoid robotics development right across from Meta’s hardware facilities.

  • Behring Companies (Downtown Oakland): Developing a 20,000 sq ft AI and memory-rich computing hub / innovation center at 415 20th Street utilizing a former federal supercomputing site to supply localized computing power explicitly targeted at regional robotics and AI workflows.

  • Ambi Robotics has 34,000 sq ft in Berkeley and Amazon’s Zoox has expanded their manufacturing operations in Fremont and Hayward.

  • If you’re a smaller startup then Circuit Launch provides a 33,000 sq ft cowork, prototyping and production facility in Oakland for robotics and electronics, a second 20,000 sq ft space in Mountain View and an SF space coming online shortly. Silicon Valley Robotics also operates out of Circuit Launch locations.

Not only is the ban targeting ALL robotics companies outside of the US but it’s based on a component ban which will also affect all US companies, according to Michelle Sun from Core Matter. The test is in component cost, not labor cost so ‘Assembled in America’ won’t count. Some core components are simply not available in the US.

Leave a comment

America Wants to Make Its Own Humanoid Robots. That Won’t Be Easy. - NYT

China built robots that can do backflips – but can they make money? - CNBC

Unitree’s Shanghai IPO more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors - Reuters

NVIDIA stock rises as it bets on robots - Barrons

The 4 Words From Jensen Huang That Could Redefine NVIDIA’s Total Addressable Market - WallSt 24/7

LG to unveil Nvidia-powered humanoid robot in Q1 next year - The Korea Times

Unitree’s IPO may be just the beginning of an investor frenzy over humanoid-robot stocks - MarketWatch

Robots on Wall Street: Non-traditional paths to public markets for robotics companies - The Robot Report

Uber surprised robotics company Serve by selling its entire stake - TechCrunch

Making ‘Significant’ Progress on Robotics: Deepmind’s Parada - Bloomberg

Robots construct 65 distinctive homes in planned US 3D-printed metro district - Interesting Engineering

Walmart and Target are buying a lot of robots - ValleyPress

Amazon plans to deploy AutoStore robotics solutions for fulfillment - Modern Materials Handling

Inside the Rise of Robotic Systems in Modern Hospitals - Medscape

Robots That Walk and Talk Are Coming to Car Factories - NYT

Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways - TechCrunch

Alloy Robotics Raises $8M to Help Debug Robots - CityBiz

Alloy Robotics, a San Francisco- and Sydney-based startup that helps identify the root cause of robots’ failures, has raised $8 million led by Australia’s Square Peg.

Pre-seed backers Blackbird, Airtree and Skip Capital — all Australian venture firms — joined. Unnamed executives and engineers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla, Waymo, Halter and Carbon Robotics, along with several of Alloy’s customers, participated.

Are you a startup fundraising atm? Fill out our “For Investors Eyes Only” sheet.

These investors write checks anywhere from angel and seed stage to $5-50 million.

  • Feedback from the startups - high quality inbound interest from investors.

  • Feedback from the investors - incredible depth and range of robotics startups.

If you’re an accredited investor and haven’t already signed up for the spreadsheet - Sign up here for great robotics deal flow!

Send us your photos! Here’s some great pics from Wednesday’s Silicon Valley Robotics Bots, Bevs and Devs at Nomadic AI in San Francisco. Apologies to everyone stuck on the wait list - we were at full capacity. You’ll get first invites to the next event! Subscribe to the Silicon Valley Robotics event calendar for updates.

Many companies are reaching out to Silicon Valley Robotics about hosting events, outreach or hiring and we have a great community network, of people looking for work, of investors interested in deal flow and of technologists interested in learning about the latest advances.

Would you be interested in hosting the next Bots, Bevs and Devs? Or something customized specifically for your goals? Reach out here!

Actuate - San Francisco - Aug 18 - Aug 19

Ruggedize - Salinas - Aug 26 - Aug 27

Bots, Bevs & Devs - San Francisco - Sep 2

SVR Investor Summit and Manufacturing Workshop - tbd - tbd

ROSCon Global - Toronto - Sep 22 - Sep 24 - TICKET SALES END SOON

IROS 2026 - Pittsburgh - Sep 27 - Oct 1

Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Oct 7

Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Nov4

Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Dec 2

IEEE Humanoids 2026 - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9

The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.

SVR Robotics Events

Send me your 2026 progress, plans or posts for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups. Or join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org

Crowds at Feb 2025 Bots & Beer at Circuit Launch Mountain View Crowds at Feb 2025 Bots & Beer at Circuit Launch Mountain View
Feb 2025 Bots & Beer at Circuit Launch Mountain View

Read the original on robotsandstartups.substack.com

Comments

Nothing yet. Say the first thing.

    Sign in to join the conversation.