September 2025 saw robotics companies close their doors, prominent developers release new AI models, and robotics experts provide insight into their technologies. Humanoids remain an important topic for the industry, with one developer raising over $1 billion this month.
Here are the 10 most popular articles on The Robot Report in the past month. Subscribe to The Robot Report Newsletter and listen to The Robot Report Podcast to stay up to date on the latest robotics developments.
10. Google DeepMind, Intrinsic build AI for multi-robot planning
Programming industrial robots is a labor-intensive process that often depends on teach pendants, offline tools, and trial and error. Coordinating multiple robots in shared spaces adds further complexity, making collisions and inefficiencies likely. With more than 4.3 million industrial robots in use worldwide, the time required for programming remains a major barrier to scaling automation. Read more.
9. UBTECH secures $1B in financing for Middle East humanoid production
Humanoid robotics developer UBTECH Robotics Corp. has reportedly secured a credit line of up to $1 billion from Infini Capital to expand production and marketing. The companies plan to establish a joint venture to build a “superfactory,” a research and development center, and a regional headquarters in the Middle East. Read more.
8. U.K.-based startup Humanoid unveils HMND 01 Alpha mobile manipulator
Humanoid announced the launch of HMND 01 Alpha, a dual-armed mobile manipulator for industrial use. The London-based robotics and AI developer said it developed the robot in just seven months. In the U.K. alone, manufacturers reported more than 58,000 unfilled vacancies, while across Europe, 26% of manufacturers cited labor shortages as a critical barrier to growth and one of the sector’s biggest challenges. Read more.
7. Agility Robotics explains how to train a whole-body control foundation model
A humanoid robot’s most significant advantage is the ability to perform a wide variety of tasks in highly constrained environments, according to a recent Agility Robotics blog post. The built world was designed with people in mind, and machines that can match our general capability will be the most valuable. Read more.
6. Why humanoid robots aren’t advancing as fast as AI chatbots
Chatbots have rapidly advanced in recent years, and so have the large language models, or LLMs, powering them. LLMs use machine learning algorithms trained on vast amounts of text data. Many technology leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, believe a similar approach will make humanoid robots capable of performing surgery, replacing factory workers, or serving as in-home butlers within a few short years. Other robotics experts disagree, according to UC Berkeley roboticist Ken Goldberg. Read more.
5. AWS RoboMaker shuts down in September after failing to gain traction
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, has officially discontinued RoboMaker, its cloud-based robotics simulation platform. This marks the end of a service that seemed to be misaligned from the start. RoboMaker offered cloud simulation at scale through the open-source Gazebo physics engine. The system made it possible to spin up thousands of randomized environments and generate pass/fail metrics across them. Read more.
4. Figure AI passes $1B with Series C funding toward humanoid robot development
Investment keeps flowing to humanoid robotics companies. Figure AI Inc. announced that, with its September Series C round, it has surpassed $1 billion in committed capital, bringing its post-money valuation to $39 billion. “The funding will accelerate our efforts to bring general-purpose humanoid robots into real-world environments at scale,” said the San Jose, Calif.-based company. Read more.
3. OpenMind launches OM1 Beta open-source, robot-agnostic operating system
Robotics has long been fragmented, with developers forced to choose between closed ecosystems, hardware-specific software, or steep learning curves, according to OpenMind AGI. The company announced the beta release of OM1, which it claimed is “the world’s first open-source operating system for intelligent robots, a universal platform that allows any robot to perceive, reason, and act in the real world.” Read more.
2. Rethink Robotics shuts down — again
Rethink Robotics Inc., which rose as a force- and power-limited arm pioneer, has shut down for a second time. “Unfortunately, Rethink Robotics died a second time,” Julia Astrid Riemenschneider, former CEO of Rethink, told The Robot Report. “After the first bankruptcy in 2018, the company was acquired by Hahn Automation Group and later became part of United Robotics Group.” Read more.
1. Drone startup Guardian Agriculture shuts down in September 2025
Guardian Agriculture, a Woburn, Mass.-based startup developing large drones for aerial spraying, recently shut down after failing to secure additional funding. The company ceased operations in late August 2025 following a round of layoffs earlier in the summer. Read more.
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