gig economy - Page 7

The Information reports that ex-White House AI adviser Sriram Krishnan is launching a venture firm and targeting a $500 million first fund. A target is not money raised.

BYD's humanoid design patent is published, but its August debut has not happened. Kerala Police signed a traffic-robot MoU. Neither is a product yet.

Torch Systems announced $11.5M on 6 October 2026: $9.5M equity and $2M venture debt. What its solar-powered TerraNode sensor does, what equity versus venture debt means, and which figures come only from the CEO.

Four chip-supply items from 8–9 October 2026: GlobalFoundries tops out a €1.1 billion Dresden expansion and plans an "FDX Fusion" platform that still needs German approval; Lumentum's CEO tells Bloomberg its optical parts are "completely sold out" through early 2029, even after a 12-fold capacity increase in Japan; Unisem proposes a RM396 million packaging expansion in Malaysia; and AI chip-design start-up Phinity raises a $5.2 million seed. What is confirmed and what is a claim.

Three robotics items from 8 October 2026: a FAIR at Meta and Mila preprint on how robot "world models" scale, a reported Series A for Beijing's Livsyn Robotics, and CP AI Robotics' C1 store humanoid, which the company plans to roll out in Japanese convenience stores "as early as 2027". What each shows, and what it doesn't.

Manus raises more than $500m after Beijing blocked Meta's takeover. Tab emerges at a $300m valuation. Nvidia reportedly discusses another $1bn for Figure. ElevenLabs says it has passed a $600m run rate, and Synthesia launches Syren in beta. A Reuters/Ipsos poll finds most Americans think government is not taking AI risks seriously enough.

A former Tesla Optimus AI lead is reportedly building non-humanoid factory robots. AWS has published open sample code for training robot software in the cloud. Locus keeps its top AMR ranking in the Americas, and ZS Robotics brings a low-profile pallet shuttle to the US. What is confirmed, what is reported and what is company-claimed.

Boston Dynamics has appointed former Amazon Alexa and AGI chief Rohit Prasad as CEO, effective 7 October 2026. What the company confirmed, what Hyundai's 2028 Atlas factory target means, and what is still unknown.

Minerva Humanoids’ company release says it raised about $10 million in pre-seed funding led by General Catalyst to build Roger, a semi-autonomous VR-teleoperated humanoid aimed at hazardous energy and public-safety work, with paid pilots launching in the fall.

Chosun Biz reports Lotte Global Logistics was selected for a KEIT/MOTIE robot industry technology project lasting about five years to March 2031, piloting domestic physical-AI humanoids across six logistics processes at major Korean centres.