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MIT-trained roboticist leading America's largest drone maker — 60,000+ autonomous drones delivered to 3,800 organisations. Raised a $110m Series F at $4.4bn in April 2026 and doubled down on US manufacturing after Chinese sanctions over Taiwan sales.

Norwegian roboticist who founded 1X (formerly Halodi Robotics) in 2014 and bet the company on the home. NEO, its soft-bodied domestic humanoid, took 10,000 pre-orders in five days and entered full-scale production at 1X's Hayward, California factory in April 2026.

Former Navy SEAL who co-founded Shield AI to put AI pilots on military aircraft. Leads growth and government relations at the company behind Hivemind and V-BAT, valued around $12.7bn in 2026 — one of the most valuable private defence startups in the US.

Serial founder (Archer Aviation, Vettery) who started Figure in 2022 and has driven it to a $39bn valuation. The Figure 03 humanoid, priced at $24,760, is aimed at both factory and household work — and Figure's own robots now outnumber its human staff.

Tsinghua doctoral supervisor whose humanoid startup — the only one with Tsinghua equity participation — builds 95%-self-developed bipedal and service humanoids, already working in SF Express and China Post logistics centres and winning three global embodied-model competitions in 2026.

Former McKinsey partner and special advisor at the German Federal Ministry of Defence, now co-running Europe's defence-AI standard-bearer with Torsten Reil — strike drones, electronic warfare software and autonomous underwater systems across four European countries.

Sold Oculus to Facebook at 21, then co-founded Anduril in 2017 to rebuild the defence industrial base around autonomy and software. Now 7,000 employees and $2bn in 2025 revenue, arming Ukraine and expanding into autonomous fighter aircraft.

Games-AI entrepreneur (NaturalMotion) who co-founded Helsing in 2021 to build AI-powered defence for European democracies. Its July 2026 $1.8bn Series E at an $18bn valuation was the largest private raise in European defence-tech history.

Stanford PhD who founded Galbot in 2023 and built AstraBrain, its end-to-end embodied AI model, plus the world's first large-scale unmanned retail network run by wheeled humanoids. President Xi Jinping inspected the Galbot G1 in February 2026; backers including CATL have put in $335m+.

Founded Unitree in Hangzhou in 2016 and turned it into China's flagship legged-robot maker, from low-cost quadrupeds to the G1 and H1 humanoids. Named AI Person of the Year at the 2026 China AI Ceremony; Unitree expects to ship 10,000–20,000 humanoids in 2026.

Founded UBTECH in 2012 and took it public in Hong Kong in 2023 as China's first listed humanoid company. Targeting production capacity of 50,000 bionic robots in 2026, with 10,000+ pre-orders for the U1 humanoid series; predicts robots absorb most repetitive physical work within 20 years.

Co-leads NVIDIA's GEAR lab and Project GR00T, the foundation-model programme for humanoid robots — and is one of the most influential public voices on 'physical AI'. Stanford PhD and OpenAI's first intern.

The father of dynamic legged robots — founded Boston Dynamics in 1992, remains its board chairman, and since 2022 has led the Hyundai-backed Robotics & AI Institute in Cambridge, pursuing the fundamental research behind the next generations of intelligent machines.

Ex-Microsoft EVP and former Magic Leap CEO, running Agility since 2024 to commercialise Digit, the warehouse humanoid. In 2026 she is steering the company toward public markets via a proposed combination with Churchill Capital Corp XI.

Founded Imperial College's Hamlyn Centre for Robotic Surgery and the journal Science Robotics before building SJTU's Institute of Medical Robotics into a leading centre for surgical, assistive and hospital-automation robots. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and IEEE.

One of the defining researchers in robot learning — ACM Prize winner, co-founder of Covariant (absorbed into Amazon in 2024), and now co-lead of Amazon's Frontier AI & Robotics team alongside his Berkeley professorship and the BAIR lab.