Tether Backs €1B Push into Humanoid Robots
German startup Neura Robotics is raising approximately €1 billion in a round backed by stablecoin issuer Tether. The massive early-stage bet is aimed at developing AI-powered humanoid robots, representing a major convergence of crypto wealth and physical AI hardware.
This investment is part of Tether's broader strategy to diversify into technology and infrastructure, which it categorizes as "evolution" investments. The company has also backed other ventures in AI and robotics, including a recent €70 million ($81 million) funding round for Italian humanoid robotics firm Generative Bionics. Neura Robotics, founded in 2019 by David Reger, aims to pioneer "cognitive robotics," creating robots that can safely interact with humans by seeing, hearing, and feeling. Before its humanoid push, the company had already launched MAiRA, marketed as the first commercially available cognitive collaborative robot, or "cobot." The humanoid robotics field is intensely competitive. Neura faces rivals like Figure AI, which recently raised over $1 billion in a Series C round with backing from NVIDIA, Microsoft, Intel, and Jeff Bezos, reaching a $39 billion valuation. Other major players include Boston Dynamics with its highly agile Atlas robot and Tesla, which is developing its Optimus humanoid. Neura's technological approach is centered on its Neuraverse platform, an operating system designed to connect robots and allow them to learn from each other's experiences. The company is developing its humanoid model, named 4NE1 ("for anyone"), and a service robot called MiPA, with the ambitious goal of delivering five million robots by 2030.
