Startups in robotics got $9.9 billion in quarter 3 of 2026

Crunchbase, a company that records venture funding, tells that startups in robotics got $9.9 billion in quarter 3 of 2026. Funding for quarters 1 to 3 is up about 185% on last year. China is first this year with $13.2 billion, then the US with $12.1 billion. Germany is 3rd with $1.7 billion. Crunchbase also tells that the growth is high this year.

Where the money went

Crunchbase names these large rounds of 2026:

• Xpeng Robotics, China: $900 million for AI models and physical robots.
• Skild AI, US: $1.4 billion for its robotics foundation model.
• Neura Robotics, Germany: $1.4 billion for cognitive robots.

The numbers

About 75 robotics companies on the Crunchbase list of top-valued startups got funding in the last 3 years. Of these, 45 are new on the list this year.

What is not known

Crunchbase tells that the direction of the sector is not clear. Ulrik Stig Hansen of Encord, a data supplier, tells that there is no internet of physical AI data. The data must be collected first. Hansen tells that the field is in the pre-training phase.

Insight: Data is the scarce part of robot AI

Hansen tells that data for physical AI must first be collected, and that it costs much to keep and check. Provision Labs, a new firm, starts to collect it from professionals. Other firms sell videos of workers to AI labs. This reads as a toll gate: the owners of large data sets with consent can charge model makers. A Pronto data pilot caused criticism, and consent is the weak point.