East Bay becoming home to physical AI

View this post on the web at robotsandstartups.substack.com/p/east-…o-physical

Who’s building robots in the East Bay?
Project Prometheus (West Oakland): [ substack.com/redirect/ce06eb18-bafc-45…cRgCZJeNcw ] Co-founded by Jeff Bezos, this physical AI and “artificial general engineer” startup just leased 100,000 square feet at the American Steel Blocks site to build AI that interacts with and manufactures physical products.
1X Technologies (Hayward): [ substack.com/redirect/bfd35f72-a346-4e…cRgCZJeNcw ] Operates the 58,000-square-foot “Neoactory,” a high-volume manufacturing facility dedicated to building humanoid robots like the NEO, complete with in-house component production and assembly.
OpenAI (Richmond): [ substack.com/redirect/36d21e9f-96a7-4a…cRgCZJeNcw ] Secured a massive 202,400-square-foot industrial footprint at the Portside Commerce Center (originally prepped for Moxion Power) tailored with heavy electrical power to support robotics development and manufacturing.
Tesla (Fremont & Oakland): [ substack.com/redirect/1ad020ed-87ba-4a…cRgCZJeNcw ] Maintains its massive vehicle and automated manufacturing footprint at the Fremont factory—geared up for large-scale Optimus humanoid robot production lines—along with autonomous fleet staging operations in Oakland.
Agility Robotics (Fremont) [ substack.com/redirect/27ac9b85-8b5f-4f…cRgCZJeNcw ]: Operates a 60,000 sq ft advanced hardware R&D and engineering campus focused on humanoid robotics development right across from Meta’s hardware facilities.
Behring Companies (Downtown Oakland): [ substack.com/redirect/246d14bd-e52e-49…cRgCZJeNcw ] Developing a 20,000 sq ft AI and memory-rich computing hub / innovation center at 415 20th Street utilizing a former federal supercomputing site to supply localized computing power explicitly targeted at regional robotics and AI workflows.
Ambi Robotics [ substack.com/redirect/93c36742-c281-47…cRgCZJeNcw ] has 34,000 sq ft in Berkeley and Amazon’s Zoox [ substack.com/redirect/ef018063-d7b1-4b…cRgCZJeNcw ] has expanded their manufacturing operations in Fremont and Hayward.
If you’re a smaller startup then Circuit Launch [ substack.com/redirect/3476185b-864e-41…cRgCZJeNcw ] provides a 33,000 sq ft cowork, prototyping and production facility in Oakland for robotics and electronics, a second 20,000 sq ft space in Mountain View and an SF space coming online shortly. Silicon Valley Robotics [ substack.com/redirect/11604b37-d06a-40…cRgCZJeNcw ] also operates out of Circuit Launch locations.
What the FCC humanoids ban gets wrong
Not only is the ban targeting ALL robotics companies outside of the US but it’s based on a component ban which will also affect all US companies, according to Michelle Sun from Core Matter. The test is in component cost, not labor cost so ‘Assembled in America’ won’t count. Some core components are simply not available in the US.
Recommendations for shipping humanoids to US needed!
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Robotics News
America Wants to Make Its Own Humanoid Robots. That Won’t Be Easy. - NYT [ substack.com/redirect/c1dfe5a1-5f61-4c…cRgCZJeNcw ]
China built robots that can do backflips – but can they make money? - CNBC [ substack.com/redirect/5a394101-33e4-4f…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Unitree’s Shanghai IPO more than 8,000 times oversubscribed by retail investors - Reuters [ substack.com/redirect/6b4a42ad-68f3-4b…cRgCZJeNcw ]
NVIDIA stock rises as it bets on robots - Barrons [ substack.com/redirect/a09da683-7315-4e…cRgCZJeNcw ]
The 4 Words From Jensen Huang That Could Redefine NVIDIA’s Total Addressable Market - WallSt 24/7 [ substack.com/redirect/eb771da6-1ad4-4e…cRgCZJeNcw ]
LG to unveil Nvidia-powered humanoid robot in Q1 next year - The Korea Times [ substack.com/redirect/ea2f5ce1-5d71-49…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Unitree’s IPO may be just the beginning of an investor frenzy over humanoid-robot stocks - MarketWatch [ substack.com/redirect/816e7af1-ba05-49…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Robots on Wall Street: Non-traditional paths to public markets for robotics companies - The Robot Report [ substack.com/redirect/271fea64-274a-48…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Uber surprised robotics company Serve by selling its entire stake - TechCrunch [ substack.com/redirect/48ac619d-f74a-41…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Making ‘Significant’ Progress on Robotics: Deepmind’s Parada - Bloomberg [ substack.com/redirect/00d13da3-9eaf-4d…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Robots construct 65 distinctive homes in planned US 3D-printed metro district - Interesting Engineering [ substack.com/redirect/42803aba-156e-43…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Walmart and Target are buying a lot of robots - ValleyPress [ substack.com/redirect/5e22d965-40ec-4a…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Amazon plans to deploy AutoStore robotics solutions for fulfillment - Modern Materials Handling [ substack.com/redirect/8c002722-6e68-4d…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Inside the Rise of Robotic Systems in Modern Hospitals - Medscape [ substack.com/redirect/b0c6e513-a6eb-4a…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Robots That Walk and Talk Are Coming to Car Factories - NYT [ substack.com/redirect/74dad2f1-ed96-46…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Self-driving trucks are officially testing on California highways - TechCrunch [ substack.com/redirect/b2b1bc8d-dc34-47…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Alloy Robotics Raises $8M to Help Debug Robots - CityBiz [ substack.com/redirect/735c85e7-7905-48…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Alloy Robotics [ substack.com/redirect/82a20991-aefc-48…cRgCZJeNcw ], a San Francisco- and Sydney-based startup that helps identify the root cause of robots’ failures, has raised $8 million led by Australia’s Square Peg.
Pre-seed backers Blackbird, Airtree and Skip Capital — all Australian venture firms — joined. Unnamed executives and engineers from OpenAI, Anthropic, Tesla, Waymo, Halter and Carbon Robotics, along with several of Alloy’s customers, participated.
Silicon Valley Robotics Investor/Startup Database
Are you a startup fundraising atm? Fill out our “For Investors Eyes Only” [ substack.com/redirect/f4d31541-48eb-45…cRgCZJeNcw ] sheet.
These investors write checks anywhere from angel and seed stage to $5-50 million.
Feedback from the startups - high quality inbound interest from investors.
Feedback from the investors - incredible depth and range of robotics startups.
If you’re an accredited investor and haven’t already signed up for the spreadsheet - Sign up here for great robotics deal flow! [ substack.com/redirect/e329b746-7a46-41…cRgCZJeNcw ]
Robotics Events
Send us your photos! Here’s some great pics from Wednesday’s Silicon Valley Robotics Bots, Bevs and Devs at Nomadic AI in San Francisco. Apologies to everyone stuck on the wait list - we were at full capacity. You’ll get first invites to the next event! Subscribe to the Silicon Valley Robotics event calendar [ substack.com/redirect/f629eaae-95a4-4f…cRgCZJeNcw ] for updates.
Want to host an event or reach the robotics community?
Many companies are reaching out to Silicon Valley Robotics about hosting events, outreach or hiring and we have a great community network, of people looking for work, of investors interested in deal flow and of technologists interested in learning about the latest advances.
Would you be interested in hosting the next Bots, Bevs and Devs? Or something customized specifically for your goals? Reach out here! [ substack.com/redirect/7f636f52-244c-45…cRgCZJeNcw ]
More Robotics Events:
Actuate [ substack.com/redirect/67272a0d-71ad-4f…cRgCZJeNcw ] - San Francisco - Aug 18 - Aug 19
Ruggedize [ substack.com/redirect/0b33cd62-d2e7-49…cRgCZJeNcw ] - Salinas - Aug 26 - Aug 27
Bots, Bevs & Devs - San Francisco - Sep 2
SVR Investor Summit and Manufacturing Workshop - tbd - tbd
ROSCon Global [ substack.com/redirect/f7b04f4d-cb52-42…cRgCZJeNcw ] - Toronto - Sep 22 - Sep 24 - TICKET SALES END SOON
IROS 2026 [ 2026.ieee-iros.org/ ] - Pittsburgh - Sep 27 - Oct 1
Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Oct 7
Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Nov4
Bots, Bevs & Devs - tbd - Dec 2
IEEE Humanoids 2026 [ 2026.ieee-humanoids.org/ ] - Silicon Valley - Dec 6-9
The annual IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots is the internationally recognized prime event of the humanoid robotics community. The conference is sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society and coordinated by the Technical Committee on Humanoids.
Send me your 2026 progress, plans or posts for potential inclusion in Robots&Startups. Or join the organizing team at Silicon Valley Robotics - bots&beer@svrobo.org [ mailto:bots&%3Bbeer@svrobo.org/ ]
Robots & Startups is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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