NVIDIA and Noetra Corp. to Build Vera Rubin AI Factory in Japan for National Physical AI Project

Humanoid robots are making meaningful progress in autonomy, dexterity and repetitive real-world tasks, but widespread commercial deployment remains a work in progress, according to a report published Wednesday by Citrini Research. After a week meeting robotics labs, engineers and investors across the San Francisco Bay Area, the firm found most humanoid robots remain in development, training and tele-operated demonstrations, with real-world deployments closer to pilots than clear return-on-investment opportunities. The report examined whether robotics is approaching its own ChatGPT moment and highlighted advances from GeneralistAI and Skild AI, along with Figure AI's demonstration involving 250,000 packages, suggesting the field may advance through a mosaic of signals rather than one defining breakthrough. Basic humanoid locomotion is effectively a solved problem while complex dexterity remains more difficult, and simple repetitive tasks are already trainable. Investment in the broader robotics infrastructure is keeping pace: Tesla Inc has been preparing production lines for Optimus, XPeng Inc has launched an automated production line for its IRON humanoid robot, and Figure AI is securing access to up to 100,000 Vera Rubin GPUs from NVIDIA Corp to train the models powering its humanoid robots. The report concluded robotic autonomy is developing along a curve rather than arriving through one decisive breakthrough, with broad generalizability remaining the longer-term goal.

Gao Yang, co-founder and chief scientist of Chinese startup Spirit AI, told Reuters that humanoid robots capable of handling most basic tasks on verbal command could become a reality as early as next year. "By mid-2027, you will be able to speak to a robot in natural language and it will complete a series of actions to carry out a task," he said, expressing confidence in the pace of software advances. The company has already achieved a roughly 90 percent success rate on simple tasks, but challenges remain with fine movements such as loosening a bottle cap and with handling unexpected situations, and adoption in ordinary households is still expected to take time. About 1,000 contract workers at the company wear data-collection devices at home and in factories, gathering movement data to train the robots. Spirit AI was founded in 2024 and has about 300 full-time employees. It has raised more than 670 million dollars to date and has deployed dozens of humanoid robots at battery giant CATL and online retail giant JD.com.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said he expects the company to sell roughly twice as many chips next year as it does this year, pointing to continued demand for artificial intelligence technology across industries. Huang made the projection while attending an AI-focused meeting hosted by King Charles III in Scotland, where he said businesses and governments in many countries keep investing in AI because of its potential economic benefits. The unit-growth outlook comes after Nvidia projected about $673 billion in revenue for fiscal 2028, representing growth of roughly 70% from the prior year, though the company does not disclose its total chip sales volume, making the two figures difficult to compare directly. Nvidia's portfolio includes data-center graphics processors such as Blackwell and Rubin, along with CPUs, networking chips and processors used in robotics and vehicles, and Huang has previously said the company shipped six million Blackwell GPUs over four quarters. Huang also joined executives from Google DeepMind, OpenAI and Anthropic at the Scotland meeting, where discussions included AI safety and product testing.