• NVIDIA’s Jetson Thor: announced in August 2025, this “robot brain” packs 128 GB of memory and can deliver up to 2,070 teraflops of compute. Built on the Blackwell GPU, it offers 7.5× higher AI compute and 3.5× better energy efficiency than its predecessor, enabling generative‑AI models like Isaac GR00T N1.5 to run on robots of every form factor . Jensen Huang calls it a platform for “physical AI”

• OpenAI Sora 2: unveiled in September 2025, Sora 2 pushes video generation toward a physically accurate world simulator—models maintain object permanence, simulate complex feats (backflips, Olympic routines) and add rich soundscapes. Users can even insert themselves as “cameos” in generated scenes, and the free iOS app hints at a future where shared realities are co‑created .

• Gemini Robotics & Robotics‑ER 1.5: Google DeepMind’s latest vision‑language‑action models control robots via natural‑language commands. In September 2025 demonstrations, Apptronik’s Apollo folded clothes, sorted objects and packed bags; the ER variant understands physical spaces and plans movements, turning visual and language instructions into motor commands . The home robot isn’t magic—it’s AI translating perception into action.

• Figure’s Helix: released February 2025, this generalist robot brain feeds camera images and robot states into a latent embedding and outputs continuous joint actions. Helix can control multiple humanoids simultaneously, coordinating arms, torsos and fingers to perform complex tasks —a glimpse of cloud‑based “operating systems” for bodies.

• Digit’s historic deployment: Agility Robotics’ Digit became the first humanoid deployed in real commercial operations in 2024. At a GXO‑operated Spanx warehouse, Digit shuttles totes between workstations, illustrating how humanoids can address repetitive labor while working alongside people

• Figure AI & BMW: a January 2024 agreement saw BMW Manufacturing adopt Figure’s general‑purpose humanoids to automate dangerous tasks. By October 2025, a Figure robot had been running 10 hours a day on the BMW X3 body‑shop line for five months —a milestone proving humanoids can operate continuously in high‑precision factories.

• Electric Atlas: Boston Dynamics retired its hydraulic Atlas and unveiled a fully electric version in April 2024. Designed for real‑world industrial jobs with Hyundai, the robot boasts greater strength and range of motion than its predecessors, combining digital twins, AI and reinforcement learning to move more efficiently than human limbs .

• Einride’s autonomous freight leap: on 29 September 2025, Einride’s cabless, electric truck crossed the Norway‑Sweden border with no driver, completing the world’s first fully autonomous cross‑border delivery. Integrated with Norway’s Digitoll digital customs system, this EU‑backed MODI project shows how AI, electric propulsion and cooperative infrastructures can transform logistics

• AI hardware race: Google’s Ironwood TPU, presented at Hot Chips 2025, is optimized for inference. Each node can host 9,216 chips, reaching 42.5 exaflops while using optical circuit switches to share 1.77 PB of memory; it doubles performance per watt over the prior Trillium generation . In parallel, Amazon’s Trainium 2, widely deployed by 2025, trains models four times faster and scales to 100 k chips with improved energy efficiency —together highlighting a silicon arms race powering the new machine intelligences.

• Tesla’s golden Optimus: in September 2025, Tesla debuted a gold‑plated Optimus prototype with Grok‑powered voice commands and refined hands. During a kitchen fetch demonstration, the robot hesitated and needed repeated prompts, underscoring the gulf between futuristic promises and real‑time performance—even as price estimates of $200 K–$500 K and a 2026 production target keep public fascination high