Humanoid Daily 4: robots on ships, IPO, $23 billion, and explosion of robots by 2028
South Korea puts a humanoid robot on the bridge
South Korea’s Navy has completed its first combat experiment with a humanoid robot serving as a ship’s helmsman.
The robot, called Pibot, successfully steered under simulated nighttime operations, bad weather, and narrow-water navigation. The goal isn’t replacing sailors tomorrow, but reducing crew workload as South Korea faces shrinking military manpower.
It’s another reminder that humanoid robots aren’t just headed into factories. Militaries around the world are starting to explore where general-purpose humanoids can take on real operational roles.
Agibot begins its IPO journey
One of China’s biggest humanoid robot companies is heading toward the public markets.
According to Reuters, Shanghai-based Agibot is preparing for a Hong Kong IPO that could value the company between US$5.1 and US$6.4 billion, with the potential to raise more than US$1 billion.
The company has attracted heavyweight investors including Tencent, LG Electronics, BYD, Hillhouse, and HongShan Capital. The fresh capital would help Agibot scale manufacturing, expand internationally, and accelerate development of its humanoid robot lineup.
It’s another sign that investors increasingly see humanoid robotics as a long-term industrial platform—not just an experimental technology.
Humanoids could reach a ChatGPT moment by 2028
Galbot founder and CTO Wang He believes humanoid robots could experience their own “ChatGPT moment” before the end of 2028.
His argument is that once embodied AI models are trained on enough real-world data, robots will be able to perform entirely new tasks with little or no additional training—similar to how large language models suddenly became useful across thousands of applications.
China is certainly preparing for that future. The country expects to produce more than 100,000 humanoid robots this year, but officials also say the next challenge is creating common standards so robots from different manufacturers can safely work together at scale.
The industry is growing incredibly fast. The next step isn’t just building more robots ... it’s making them useful, interoperable, and trustworthy. That last one, of course, is totally critical.
Number of the Day
23 billion dollars.
That’s how much venture capital has already flowed into Physical AI companies in 2026 alone.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the biggest investments include Waymo, Skild AI, NEURA Robotics, and Physical Intelligence, with much of the money flowing into foundation models, industrial automation, autonomous vehicles, and humanoid robots.
Investors aren’t just betting on chatbots anymore. They’re betting that AI is moving into the physical world.
Oh ... a BONUS NUMBER OF THE DAY ...
I happened to see on social that Figure AI has now produced its 1,000th Figure 03 humanoid robot.
Congratulations!
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Written by
I tell stories with data and build startups. I've raised angel and VC funds, led software companies and startups, and chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. Currently I write for Forbes, host several podcasts, and am starting up HumanoidMegaHub. I was TUNE's mobile economist and Singular's VP of Insights, built the research team at VentureBeat, and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In past lives I built websites, e-learning platforms, and mobile apps, and, a long time ago, was named to Folio's top 100 of the media industry's "most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.”