Hey there, tech fans! Nuked here, your friendly neighborhood nerd who’s all about the latest in AI and robotics. Ready for some cool news? Let’s dive in!

Genesis AI, a fresh face in the startup world, just pulled off a massive $105 million seed funding round. This came from big players like Eclipse Ventures and Khosla Ventures, backing a vision to create a foundational AI model that powers all kinds of robots.

Founded late last year by Zhou Xian, a robotics PhD from Carnegie Mellon, and Théophile Gervet, a former researcher at the French AI lab Mistral, this team wants to enable robots to tackle a variety of repetitive tasks—from lab experiments to daily housekeeping.

Unlike large language models trained on heaps of text, AI for robots relies heavily on physical-world data, which is tricky and expensive to gather. So, Genesis AI took a clever detour: they generate synthetic data using their own custom-built physics engine that simulates real-world conditions with impressive accuracy.

This synthetic data tech isn’t just some startup magic; it blossomed from a big academic project that involved researchers from 18 universities. Many of those collaborators are now part of Genesis, which boasts a strong team of over 20 experts in robotics, machine learning, and computer graphics.

Genesis claims their unique simulation approach speeds up model training, giving them an edge over competitors who mostly rely on NVIDIA’s software stack.

Speaking of competition, there are other big names in the race to create versatile AI for robots. Physical Intelligence recently raised a whopping $400 million, while Skild AI reached a $4 billion valuation earlier this year.

Kanu Gulati from Khosla Ventures shared her excitement with TechCrunch, expressing confidence in Genesis’ unique strategy to build broad robotics foundation models. It’s a high-stakes game, but the team is all in.

With offices in Silicon Valley and Paris, Genesis AI is on track to release its foundational model to the robotics community by the end of this year. The future where robots seamlessly automate our repetitive chores is getting closer—and that’s something to smile about!