Robots from around the world have converged on Silicon Valley to provide a glimpse of a potential future.
Two robots picked up T-shirts with orange claws, then carefully folded and stacked them. A cute robot companion with glowing eyes used its mechanical hands to create a heart.
A small robot wearing a bear hat threw punches, and a blue-green robot, resembling an anime character, moved its head and arms. A robot designed to look like a child and teach had something to say.
“By teaming up, humans and robots can solve big problems like making education more accessible, caring for people and protecting our planet,” said Codey, a robot at Mind Children, a Washington state startup.
1. Ability Hand, a robotic hand from Psyonic, gestures. 2. David Zhang, CEO of High Torque, a Chinese robotics company, troubleshoots Pi Plus on the exhibition hall floor. 3. A Hatsumuv cutieroid humanoid robot gestures. (Jungho Kim/For Time)
The robots and about 2,000 people were participating in the two-day Humanoid Summit, held last week at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. Humanoid robots differ from standard mechanical robots already used in many industries because they resemble people and imitate their movements.
The event brought together robotics companies from the United States, China, Japan and elsewhere.
It featured speakers from Google, Disney and Boston Dynamics, as well as products from California startups such as Weave Robotics, Dyna Robotics and Psyonic.
California-based venture capital firm ALM Ventures organized the summit. Investors are betting more on robotics companies, intensifying competition to place AI in physical forms that interact with people in the real world.
As of early December, venture capital deals in U.S. humanoid robotics companies totaled nearly $2.8 billion in 2025, up from $42.6 million in 2020, according to PitchBook data. Investments in California humanoid robotics companies – about $1.6 billion – made up the majority of that funding.
Figure, a San Jose-based AI robotics company that developed a robot to do dishes, laundry and other household tasks, announced in September that its funding had surpassed $1 billion and that it was valued at $39 billion.
Companies have developed robots to lift heavy objects in warehouses, assist customers in stores, assist doctors, fight on battlefields, and entertain visitors at theme parks.
Startups build components for robots, such as hands, sensors and cameras. And tech moguls have made some bold predictions about the future.
Elon Musk said this year that Tesla’s humanoid robot, Optimus, would “eliminate poverty”, be more productive than humans and boost the global economy.
Yet the robots don’t come close to living up to the hype, say some analysts who are skeptical of their usefulness to businesses and consumers.
“They’re not practical. They’re limited in functionality. They’re not as smart as they’re demonstrated,” said Bill Ray, analyst and research leader at Gartner.
Zach Vinegar, co-founder and CTO, left, and Isaac Qureshi, co-founder and CEO of humanoid cleaning services company Gatlin Robotics, take their humanoid Unitree G1 for a spin at the Humanoids Summit.
(Jungho Kim/For Time)
There are also fears that robots will take people’s jobs and invade their privacy.
Robot makers say their products are designed to help humans, not replace them.
Modar Alaoui, founder and general partner of ALM Ventures, said he thinks robots will take off first in manufacturing. The company has launched a $100 million seed fund, part of which is dedicated to humanoid robots.
“It’s the dull, dangerous, boring, mundane tasks that need to be done every day,” that robots will take over, he said. “And it also happens naturally, because of the organic and natural transition from simple intelligent automation to highly intelligent automation. »
Codey, a proof-of-concept humanoid robot from Mind Children, can be found in the exhibition hall.
(Jungho Kim/For Time)
The Humanoids Summit showed to what extent robots still have technical limits. Few of the robots on display were truly autonomous, many simply performing pre-programmed movements or being manipulated by humans.
This is just the beginning, say the optimists.
The market for robots that look and act like humans is expected to grow. By 2050, the humanoid market is expected to reach $5 trillion and could be double that of the automotive industry. Morgan Stanley Research estimates. The company said more than a billion humanoids could be in use by then.
A humanoid robot costs around $200,000 in 2024 in high-income countries, Morgan Stanley Research estimates. By 2050, this amount could fall to $50,000 as technology advances and production increases.
Weave Robotics, the California startup behind the laundry-folding robot, has started placing robots in laundromats. Former Apple engineers Evan Wineland and Kaan Dogrusoz founded the company. The company plans to start shipping a new robot, Isaac, to fold laundry and tidy homes next year.
Before the conference, at Sea Breeze Cleaners in San Francisco, one of the company’s robots folded shirts behind a large window overlooking a sidewalk in the Noe Valley neighborhood.
This strange sight stopped people in their tracks. Curious onlookers took photos.
The AI-powered robot didn’t fold the clothes as quickly as humans, but it patiently went through the laundry, one pile at a time.
A robot folds laundry at Sea Breeze Cleaners in San Francisco.
(Josh Edelson/Los Angeles Times)
The company and Sea Breeze Cleaners have partnered with Tumble, an on-demand laundry delivery service that uses robots to complete laundry faster.
Kay Astorga, who owns Sea Breeze Cleaners with her husband, says installing the robot in their laundromat has helped attract new customers.
Working with the robot convinced her that she prefers robots – like the Disney and Pixar character WALL-E – that are more machine-like than human-like. She doesn’t want robots to do things that bring people joy, like cooking.
“I don’t want a croissant to be made by a robot,” she said. “I definitely want a shirt folded by a robot. That’s cool for me.”
While California companies like Figure and 1X Technologies build flashy home robots with human-like bodies and legs, Weave Robotics’ laundry-folding robot doesn’t need a full body. This keeps the cost of the robot under $10,000 to install and “extremely low cost for continued operation,” Wineland said.
Evan Wineland, co-founder of Weave Robotics, watches one of the company’s robots as it folds laundry at Sea Breeze Cleaners in San Francisco. Weave Robotics, the company that built the robot, develops general-purpose home and commercial robots to help with tasks like folding laundry, picking up messes, and being a general caretaker.
(Josh Edelson/Los Angeles Times)
The company is in talks with other companies in the manufacturing and hospitality sectors, he said. He plans to deploy a third robot at a laundromat in Walnut Creek in the new year, he said.
Its next home robot, named after science fiction writer Isaac Asimov, will cost more because it will be mobile with wheels and have other high-end features. The company plans that people will be able to talk to the robot and issue commands through an app.
Some robots perform dangerous tasks that workers may not want to do.
Agility Robotics, an Oregon company with an office in San Jose, deploys its Digit robot in warehouses as well as manufacturing and logistics.
“You have a lot of manual labor that involves very heavy moving of objects and people can get cut. People can get hurt,” said Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility Robotics.
Standing on two legs, the blue-green robot has claw-like pincers rather than hands and can lift up to 35 pounds. Companies such as e-commerce giant Amazon have used the robot for repetitive tasks such as picking up and moving empty bins.
Agility charges companies for the work their robots provide. The company, like others in the industry, must build a cage or guardrail around the robot for safety reasons.
Californian startups are also working to improve parts used by robots and sometimes even humans.
Back at the top, San Diego startup Psyonic’s booth featured a selection of robotic hands on various arms that resembled Doctor Octopus, a character from the Spider-Man series. The startup is known for its bionic “ability hand,” used by both robots and humans with missing limbs. Sensors in the hand allow people to feel touch when they grasp an object.
Dale DiMassi, creative marketing manager at Psyonic, demonstrates a prosthetic hand at the Humanoids Summit.
(Jungho Kim/For Time)
Aadeel Akhtar, chief executive and co-founder of Psyonic, said that as a child he met a girl who was missing a limb while visiting Pakistan with her parents. This inspired him to work on bionic limbs. The company has received funding through crowdfunding and the TV show “Shark Tank,” and is also developing prototype arms and legs.
According to him, seeing a robot in the future will be more common.
“It’s going to be more integrated into society,” he said. “It’s not such a new concept anymore.”
