Exclusive-Ray Kurzweil's humanoid robot startup in talks for $100 million investment
FILE PHOTO: A message reading "AI artificial intelligence," a keyboard and robot hands are seen in this illustration created on January 27, 2025. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
(Reuters) -A humanoid robotics startup co-founded by prominent artificial-intelligence futurist Ray Kurzweil said on Tuesday that venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will back its $100 million Series B funding round.
The company, Beyond Imagination, will be valued at $500 million, and venture capital firm Gauntlet Ventures will be the round's sole investor.
Kurzweil is known for popularizing the term "the singularity," when he predicted two decades ago that by 2045, artificial intelligence would surpass human intelligence and embark on a path of accelerating self-enhancement. These ideas, which once seemed like science fiction, are now viewed as mainstream by many technologists.
Beyond Imagination is co-founded by scientist, entrepreneur and filmmaker Harry Kloor. The company has developed a humanoid robot — the Beyond Bot - and accompanying AI models that it intends to deploy in industrial settings such as factories, pharmaceutical plants and chip manufacturing facilities, said Gauntlet Ventures co-founder Oliver Carmack.
The company has been testing its robots and is now looking for large enterprises into which they can be deployed, Carmack said, adding that he chose to back Beyond Imagination because of its potential to revolutionize U.S. manufacturing and address the projected global shortage of skilled labor.
Major tech companies including Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla, alongside various startups, are rushing to make humanoid robots, and are betting that recent advances in AI will also lead to breakthroughs in robots and automation. In October last year, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that "a lot of progress" has been made with its humanoid robot, Optimus, which could perform many daily tasks.
Progress on robots has been slow, however, as researchers have found that the language-related AI breakthroughs driving chatbot development have not necessarily helped with understanding of the physical world. Many companies are spending enormous sums to collect the real-world training data necessary to train models that can power robots.
In addition to humanoid robots, Beyond Imagination is also developing Aura, which co-founder Kloor described as a universal operating system for intelligent manufacturing, allowing humans, robots and legacy machines to work together.
Beyond Imagination has attracted an eclectic roster of advisers, including former Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, motivational speaker Tony Robbins, and onetime Paramount Pictures chairman Jim Gianopulos.
(Reporting by Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Anna Tong in San Francisco; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
5 hours ago
- The Star
Shein hit with complaint from EU consumer group over 'dark patterns'
FILE PHOTO: Shein logo and the company's web shop are seen in this illustration taken, May 16, 2024. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration//File Photo LONDON (Reuters) -Pan-European consumers organisation BEUC filed a complaint with the European Commission on Thursday against online fast-fashion retailer Shein over its use of "dark patterns", tactics designed to make people buy more on its app and website. Pop-ups urging customers not to leave the app or risk losing promotions, countdown timers that create time pressure to complete a purchase, and the infinite scroll on its app are among the methods Shein uses that could be considered "aggressive commercial practices", BEUC said in a report also published on Thursday. The BEUC also detailed Shein's use of frequent notifications, with one phone receiving 12 notifications from the app in a single day. "For fast fashion you need to have volume, you need to have mass consumption, and these dark patterns are designed to stimulate mass consumption," Agustin Reyna, director general of BEUC, said in an interview. "For us, to be satisfactory they need to get rid of these dark patterns, but the question is whether they will have enough incentive to do so, knowing the potential impact it can have on the volume of purchases." In a statement, Shein said: "We are already working constructively with national consumers authorities and the EU Commission to demonstrate our commitment to complying with EU laws and regulations." It added that the BEUC had not accepted its request for a meeting. Shein and rival online discount platform Temu have surged in popularity in Europe, partly helped by apps that encourage shoppers to engage with games and stand to win discounts and free products. The BEUC has also previously targeted Temu in a complaint. Shein's use of gamification, drawing shoppers to use the app regularly, has helped drive its success. In the "Puppy Keep" game on the app, users feed a virtual dog and collect points to win free items. They can gain more points by scrolling through the app, and by ordering items, but must log into the game every day or risk losing cumulative rewards. The BEUC noted that dark patterns are widely used by mass-market clothing retailers and called on the consumer protection network to include other retailers in its investigation. It said 25 of its member organisations in 21 countries, including France, Germany and Spain, joined in the grievance filed with the Commission and with the European consumer protection network. Late last month, the European Commission notified Shein of practices breaching EU consumer law and warned it would face fines if it failed to address the concerns. The company is also under scrutiny from EU tech regulators on how it complies with EU online content rules. (Reporting by Helen Reid; additional reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by Mark Heinrich)
Daily Express
7 hours ago
- Daily Express
EVs boost German auto sales, Tesla falls again
Published on: Thursday, June 05, 2025 Published on: Thu, Jun 05, 2025 By: AFP Text Size: But electric car maker Tesla, which has suffered across Europe due to anger that Musk played a role as a key advisor to US President Donald Trump, saw its sales slide again, this time by 36 percent. FRANKFURT: A jump in electric car sales helped give a slight boost to Germany's troubled auto market last month, official data showed Wednesday, although Elon Musk's Tesla fared poorly again. A total of 239,297 new vehicles were registered in May in Europe's top car market, 1.2 percent more than the same month last year, the KBA federal transport authority said. The number of electric vehicles (EVs) registered jumped 45 percent, as the segment continues a tentative recovery following a downturn last year triggered by the removal of government subsidies. This offset declines for petrol and diesel vehicle sales. But electric car maker Tesla, which has suffered across Europe due to anger that Musk played a role as a key advisor to US President Donald Trump, saw its sales slide again, this time by 36 percent. The US billionaire has faced particular hostility in Germany for backing the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) before February's general election. Musk left his role as an advisor to Trump last week, although it is not yet clear what impact this could have on Tesla's fortunes. Registrations of BYD cars jumped more than 800 percent from a year earlier, to nearly 1,860 vehicles, although the Chinese EV giant is just beginning to make inroads in Germany. EY analyst Constantin Gall said many EV manufacturers had 'significantly reduced the price difference between combustion engines and comparable electric vehicles, and are also offering very attractive financing or leasing conditions for electric cars'. The German auto market has performed weakly in recent years, and is still about 28 percent below pre-pandemic levels, according to EY. 'The market is moving sideways and not advancing—neither in Germany nor in Europe,' said Gall.
The Star
10 hours ago
- The Star
Apple loses bid to pause app store reform order in Epic Games case
FILE PHOTO: Fortnite game graphic is displayed on a smartphone in front of Apple logo in this illustration created on May 2, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo (Reuters) -Apple has failed to persuade a U.S. appeals court to pause key parts of a federal judge's order requiring the iPhone maker to immediately open its lucrative App Store to more competition. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday rejected Apple's request to put the provisions on hold as the tech giant appeals the judge's order, which came in a long-running antitrust lawsuit brought by 'Fortnite' maker Epic Games. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in April found Apple in contempt of an earlier injunction order she issued in the Epic Games case. The judge on April 30 ordered Apple to end several practices that she said were designed to circumvent the injunction, including a new 27% fee Apple imposed on app developers when its customers complete an app purchase outside the App Store. The court also prohibited Apple from restricting where developers place links to make purchases outside of an app. In its emergency appeal, Apple said the ruling blocked the company from "exercising control over core aspects of its business operations" and forced it to give away free access to its services. Epic Games countered that Apple was trying to continue evading competition and collecting fees that the judge had barred. Apple has faced a "surge of genuine competition" since Gonzalez Rogers issued her April injunction, as developers updated apps with "better payment methods, better deals, and better consumer choice," Epic said. Epic Games sued Apple in 2020 to loosen its control over transactions in applications that use its iOS operating system and how apps are distributed to consumers. Apple mostly won the case, but Gonzalez Rogers in 2021 said Apple must allow developers to more easily steer consumers to potentially cheaper non-Apple payment options. Apple defied that court order to maintain a revenue stream worth billions of dollars, Gonzalez Rogers wrote in April. She also said Apple had misled the court about its efforts to comply with her injunction and referred the company and one of its executives to federal prosecutors for a possible criminal contempt investigation. (Reporting by Mike Scarcella, Editing by David Bario Rosalba O'Brien)
