Two little-known AI startups, Rhoda AI and Genesis AI, have just drawn major investor attention by raising more than US$100 million each to build humanoid robots, tells this article from Forbes.
Rhoda AI, based in Palo Alto, landed around US$162.6 million in a Series A round in April, pushing its total funding to about US$230 million. It is developing a “general-purpose bimanual manipulation platform”—a humanoid robot with two arms capable of lifting and handling heavy objects, with a focus on industrial heavy-lifting tasks.
Genesis AI, in contrast, has taken a more software-focused path. With US$105 million in seed funding from investors such as Khosla Ventures and ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt, it aims to build a robot that trades legs for wheels, prioritizing safety, simplicity, and cost over humanoid walking. Its ambition: use AI brains and modular hardware from partners to accelerate development and scale faster.
These developments reflect a growing belief among investors that general-purpose robots are moving from speculative promise to near-term commercial reality.
Still, experts warn the path ahead remains risky, building robots that can reliably operate in complex, real-world environments is hard. What these start-ups bring to the table is a bold bet: hundreds of millions in capital and a mandate to transform robotics from neat demos into machines that work.