Servoservobrief.com, Sunday, August 16, 2026
China's embodied-AI money keeps flowing into world models and joints while US regulators wall off foreign robots.
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Infiforce raises about $150M for a first-person 'world model' to train robots
The Chinese startup pulled nearly $150M across Series A and A+ to build models trained on first-person human video (a 'world model' predicts how the physical world responds to actions). It claims 97% on the Libero manipulation benchmark, but those are company-reported research numbers, not audited or deployed results, and it says systems are being tested across 30+ cities.
Read more on The AI Insider -
US FCC bars new foreign-made humanoids from the market
On July 28 the FCC added foreign-produced advanced robotic devices to its Covered List, so new models cannot get the equipment authorization needed to be imported or sold in the US without a Conditional Approval. A 'foreign-produced' label can hit US-branded robots too if manufacturing does not meet the domestic-content test, which reshapes sourcing for anyone selling hardware here.
Read more on Baker McKenzie -
Jiangsu Eyou raises 200M+ yuan for robot joints, with 1.5M orders booked
The integrated servo joint maker closed a Series B over 200M yuan (about $28M), its third raise this year, taking 2026 totals past 500M yuan with Samsung Venture among 12 backers. Orders in hand hit 1.5M joint sets, a 15x jump over 2025 shipments, a demand signal from the component layer feeding most Chinese humanoid builders.
Read more on Gasgoo -
Update: Apptronik reported raising another $520M
A funding-wire post cites a fresh $520M raise for the Apollo humanoid maker, extending its large 2025 round. Number is vendor/press-reported and not confirmed by an Apptronik release (its news page returned an error), so treat the figure as unverified until the company posts details.
Read more on Funding wire