LIVE · THU, JUL 02, 2026 --:--:-- ET

Issue Nº 72 COST TOTAL $14645.43 ARTICLES TODAY 3 TOKENS TOTAL 9.28B

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Breaking Cloudflare opens Monetization Gateway for x402 stablecoin micropayments; agents pay per request without signup Breaking Hugging Face + Cerebras unlock real-time voice AI for robots; Gemma 4 at 1,800 TPS enables low-latency speech-to-speech on 7.5K+ Reachy Mini units Funding Wayve launches $85M employee tender on LSE Pisces platform, first major test of UK private markets system Funding Ant Group leads $73.58M funding round in humanoid robot startup Zeroth; 12th robotics bet in 18 months Market Samsung, SK Hynix shares slide 7%+ on Nasdaq opening jitters as chipmakers bear brunt of tech selloff Breaking Google launches Gemini Omni Flash video model at $0.10/sec and Nano Banana 2 Lite image model into GA Chips Tesla hires Gary Jiang, 17-year Intel veteran, as Director of Terafab chip project Market Meta launches cloud business to sell excess AI compute capacity; stock +8% Market NVIDIA projects $1 trillion AI infrastructure demand through 2027; doubles prior forecast Chips Samsung HBM4 surpasses $1B in sales within 4 months; projects $10B full-year run rate Funding Oxmiq Labs raises $35M Series A for licensable GPU IP, eyes Arm-like architecture Research ChatGPT crosses 1 billion monthly active users, fastest consumer app milestone in history Chips NVIDIA and TSMC mark first US-made Blackwell wafer in Phoenix, plan $500B infrastructure spend over 4 years Funding Oxmiq raises $35M Series A for RISC-V GPU IP, expands data center architecture focus Breaking Klarna's PriceRunner wins $1.97B antitrust verdict against Google in Swedish court Policy Anthropic restores Claude Fable 5 globally as U.S. lifts export controls after safety fix Market Emerging markets tech stocks lead H1 2026; US Big Tech up 19.4% vs emerging markets +90% Chips Computex 2026: laptop market splits into budget 8GB mainstream and $5K+ agentic-compute tier Policy EU Chips Act 2.0: Brussels launches overhaul targeting AI chip supply security Chips US PC shipments fell 7% in Q1 as memory costs spike; budget segment down 18.7% Breaking Cloudflare opens Monetization Gateway for x402 stablecoin micropayments; agents pay per request without signup Breaking Hugging Face + Cerebras unlock real-time voice AI for robots; Gemma 4 at 1,800 TPS enables low-latency speech-to-speech on 7.5K+ Reachy Mini units Funding Wayve launches $85M employee tender on LSE Pisces platform, first major test of UK private markets system Funding Ant Group leads $73.58M funding round in humanoid robot startup Zeroth; 12th robotics bet in 18 months Market Samsung, SK Hynix shares slide 7%+ on Nasdaq opening jitters as chipmakers bear brunt of tech selloff Breaking Google launches Gemini Omni Flash video model at $0.10/sec and Nano Banana 2 Lite image model into GA Chips Tesla hires Gary Jiang, 17-year Intel veteran, as Director of Terafab chip project Market Meta launches cloud business to sell excess AI compute capacity; stock +8% Market NVIDIA projects $1 trillion AI infrastructure demand through 2027; doubles prior forecast Chips Samsung HBM4 surpasses $1B in sales within 4 months; projects $10B full-year run rate Funding Oxmiq Labs raises $35M Series A for licensable GPU IP, eyes Arm-like architecture Research ChatGPT crosses 1 billion monthly active users, fastest consumer app milestone in history Chips NVIDIA and TSMC mark first US-made Blackwell wafer in Phoenix, plan $500B infrastructure spend over 4 years Funding Oxmiq raises $35M Series A for RISC-V GPU IP, expands data center architecture focus Breaking Klarna's PriceRunner wins $1.97B antitrust verdict against Google in Swedish court Policy Anthropic restores Claude Fable 5 globally as U.S. lifts export controls after safety fix Market Emerging markets tech stocks lead H1 2026; US Big Tech up 19.4% vs emerging markets +90% Chips Computex 2026: laptop market splits into budget 8GB mainstream and $5K+ agentic-compute tier Policy EU Chips Act 2.0: Brussels launches overhaul targeting AI chip supply security Chips US PC shipments fell 7% in Q1 as memory costs spike; budget segment down 18.7%

Funding Thursday, July 2, 2026 at 01:34 AM

Ant Group leads $73.58M funding round in humanoid robot startup Zeroth; 12th robotics bet in 18 months

Alibaba affiliate Ant Group led a 500 million yuan ($73.58 million) funding round in humanoid robotics startup Zeroth, announced Thursday. This marks Ant's 12th investment in the humanoid robotics sector since the start of 2025, according to CNBC analysis of PitchBook data. Co-investors in Zeroth's pre-Series A round include Geely Capital, Monolith, 37 Interactive Entertainment, and Hua Capital, bringing total funding to 1 billion yuan.

Zeroth, founded in late 2024 and based in Suzhou, plans to deploy humanoid robots for elderly and pet care before moving into children's education. The startup claims over 30,000 unit pre-orders and reported 600% operating revenue growth in the first half of 2026. Founder Guo Renjie told CNBC the company uses chips from Horizon Robotics and plans to expand overseas to North America and Europe starting this fall after completing compliance work.

Ant Group's robotics blitz—spanning companies like Galaxea, Unitree, Linkerbot, Hypershell, and Genrobot AI—reflects the fintech giant's pivot beyond payments. After regulators blocked its landmark 2020 IPO, Ant launched healthcare services and AI models, then established subsidiary RobbyAnt to develop proprietary robots. The wave of AI-powered robot exits expected from 2027 onward could fuel another generation of Chinese startup founders with deep hardware and autonomy expertise.

Sources

Primary source
cnbc.com
“Ant has led a 500 million yuan ($73.58 million) funding round in humanoid robotics company Zeroth. It's the 12th company in the sector that Ant has invested in since the beginning of 2025”
cnbc.com
“Zeroth claimed it has received orders for more than 30,000 units, and that operating revenue in the first half of the year surged 600% from a year ago”