After two cautious years, venture capital has found its next conviction bet: robots that can see, reason and work alongside people.
Funding for robotics startups has tripled year-on-year, with the largest rounds going to companies building general-purpose humanoid and warehouse systems. The catalyst is software — the same AI models behind chat assistants now give machines the ability to understand messy, unpredictable environments.
Labour economics is driving urgency. Manufacturers across three continents cite unfilled roles in logistics, elder care and skilled trades as the reason they are piloting robotic workers years earlier than planned.
Sceptics note that demos are easier than deployments, and they are right. But with hardware costs falling and capability rising, investors are no longer asking whether useful robots arrive — only who ships them first.