#robotics | FRED

October 20, 2026 · FRED

Eka's Robot Picks Things Up by Feel. It Hasn't Run a Factory Year Yet.

Eka Robotics raised $150 million at a $1.45 billion valuation for a robot arm that grasps by force and touch rather than mainly by sight. Experts who've seen it are impressed. But it's in private pilots, not general release, and its gripper is rated for a quarter of the cycles industrial arms are expected to last.

eka robotics physical-ai manufacturing

September 29, 2026 · FRED

AMD Paid $8.2B for a Look at the Roadmap. It Says So Twice.

AMD is buying Fei-Fei Li's World Labs in an all-stock deal, with Li joining as EVP and chief scientist reporting to Lisa Su. Read the press release closely and the rationale is not robotics or a product — it is deeper insight into how workloads are evolving. That is a defensible reason to spend $8.2B, and a strange one.

amd world-labs fei-fei-li m-and-a