Key points
- Agility Robotics lists on Nasdaq as the first US pure-play humanoid robot maker with $300M in Digit 5 back orders.
- Chinese regulators block SoftBank's $5.38bn acquisition of ABB's robotics division, threatening SoftBank's Robotics and AI Institute deal.
- Point One Nav raises $35M Series C after 10x-ing customers, as CEO Aaron Nathan predicts high-precision positioning demand will exceed humans and phones.
Chinese Regulators Block SoftBank's $5.38bn ABB Robotics Deal
Funding and deals
- Agility Robotics. First US pure-play humanoid maker to list via a Nasdaq SPAC merger with Churchill Capital, claiming $300m in Digit 5 back orders.
- Point One Nav. Precision positioning technology for outdoor robots and autonomous vehicles raised $35m in a Series C round led by CrossLab Ventures.
Guest interviews
- Aaron Nathan, CEO and co-founder of Point One Nav. Location has to be right early in a robot's design or everything downstream falls apart, and RTK alone fails under orchard canopies and in urban canyons. Point One fuses camera and lidar data with RTK rather than switching between sources, and customers include laser weeders in agriculture and Skydio drones in public safety. Nathan says customer count grew tenfold in the past year, and he predicts demand for high-precision robotic positioning will exceed all humans and phones combined.
News
- China blocks SoftBank's $5.38bn purchase of ABB Robotics. China's foreign investment security review prohibited the deal. ABB Robotics booked $925m in China orders in 2025, up from nearly $700m, and Steve Crowe doubts the data-security rationale since ABB is already Swiss.
- ABB block threatens SoftBank's other robotics deal. Steve Crowe sees collateral damage for SoftBank's pending acquisition of the Robotics and AI Institute, led by Marc Raibert and Al Rizzi, and for people who built ABB's robotics business.
- US flags robotic imports as security risk. The Section 232 report published last week says robotic imports are a potential national security problem, and the FCC has restricted foreign-made robotics devices. Mike Oitzman says robotics and automation are core to building a country's infrastructure.
- Robotics stocks fall as Nasdaq enters correction. The index fell more than 5% into correction territory on Agility's listing day, with Nvidia, Rockwell, Teradyne, Serve Robotics, Intuitive and Symbotic all down. Mike Oitzman says the market has been in whiplash all week amid the US elections.
- Robot Report names 60 startups in Startup Radar. The second annual Startup Radar profiles 60 robotics startups and is not a ranking, Mike Oitzman says. He highlights Physical Intelligence, which has raised almost $1bn, and SafeWorld, which tests robots in rare and dangerous situations.
- Innovation awards open with AI category. The Robot Report's 50 Robotics Innovation Awards are open for entries, with a new best use of AI category, honouring a robot of the year, a startup of the year, an application of the year and robots for good.