Humanoid Robots Take Center Stage at Silicon Valley Summit, But Skepticism Remains

The commercial boom in AI has sparked interest in humanoid robots. Around 50 companies are investing heavily in humanoid development.

Associated Press

Dec 13, 2025 — 4 min read

Photo of a man recording a humanoid robot inside the exhibition room at the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif, by Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Dec. 13, 2025 (AP) — Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.

Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry.

Photo of **Yuka Iwashita** interacting with a robotic hand at the Alt-Bionics table during the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif., by Godofredo A. Vásquez/AP

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AI robots AP AGI Modar Alaoui Silicon Valley California Alaoui Humanoids Summit Walt Disney Google Computer History Museum Cosima du Pasquier Haptica Robotics Stanford University McKinsey China Ani Kelkar OpenAI Rodney Brooks Roomba Tesla Elon Musk Waymo Mercado Libre Association for Advancing Automation Jeff Burnstein

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