The heat of the ongoing AI boom has spilled over to a famously difficult hardware space — humanoid robotics. Forbes has learned that a pair of Silicon Valley ventures, each with more than $100 million in funding, have been secretly developing human-shaped machines they hope will some day be able to perform tasks typically executed by people.
The first, Palo Alto-based Rhoda AI, raised a $162.6 million Series A round in April, bringing its total funding raised to $230 million and valuing the company at nearly $1 billion, per Pitchbook.
The second is “full-stack robotics” outfit Genesis AI, which raised a $105 million seed round earlier this year from investors including Khosla Ventures and Eric Schmidt. Documents seen by Forbes show the company developing a humanoid robot that has two arms, but wheels instead of legs.
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