Silicon Valley threw a hot robot party, and the clankers were M.I.A.
Actuate drew 1,500 people to San Francisco as robotics investment surges, though hardware was scarce.
Actuate, Silicon Valley's hottest robotics conference, saw a record 1,500 investors, founders, and engineers gather in San Francisco. The exuberance of the tech crowd was matched by the scarcity of actual robots on display. Despite a surge in robotics funding, hardware remains scarce as physical AI takes off. The Federal Communications Commission's restrictions on foreign-made advanced robotic devices have added urgency to the hardware shortage.
Chinese robots, which accounted for roughly 90% of global shipments last year, were a notable presence at the conference, with the city's hardware gap especially visible in the expo hall where data vendors outnumbered hardware companies.
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