Humanoid robots take center stage at Silicon Valley summit, but skepticism remains

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.

Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry.

Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm."

“The question is really just how long it will take,” he said.

Disney's contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human — or a snowman — are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away.

Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that's a temple to Silicon Valley's previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon.

“The humanoid space has a very, very big hill to climb,” said Cosima du Pasquier, founder and CEO of Haptica Robotics, which works to give robots a sense of touch. “There's a lot of research that still needs to be solved.”

The Stanford University postdoctoral researcher came to the conference in Mountain View, California, just a week after incorporating her startup.

“The first customers are really the people here,” she said.

Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America.

China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate last year “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinese firms dominated the expo section of this week's summit, held Thursday and Friday. The conference's most prevalent humanoids were those made by China's Unitree, in part because researchers in the U.S. buy the relatively cheap model to test their own software.

In the U.S., the advent of generative AI chatbots like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini has jolted the decades-old robotics industry in different ways. Investor excitement has poured money into ambitious startups aiming to build hardware that will bring a physical presence to the latest AI.

But it's not just crossover hype — the same technical advances that made AI chatbots so good at language have played a role in teaching robots how to get better at performing tasks. Paired with computer vision, robots powered by “visual-language” models are trained to learn about their surroundings.

One of the most prominent skeptics is robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks, a co-founder of Roomba vacuum maker iRobot who wrote in September that “today’s humanoid robots will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training.” Brooks didn't attend but his essay was frequently mentioned.

Also missing was anyone speaking for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s development of a humanoid called Optimus, a project that the billionaire is designing to be “extremely capable” and sold in high volumes. Musk said three years ago that people can probably buy an Optimus “within three to five years.”

The conference's organizer, Alaoui, founder and general partner of ALM Ventures, previously worked on driver attention systems for the automotive industry and sees parallels between humanoids and the early years of self-driving cars.

Near the entrance to the summit venue, just blocks from Google's headquarters, is a museum exhibit showing Google's bubble-shaped 2014 prototype of a self-driving car. Eleven years later, robotaxis operated by Google affiliate Waymo are constantly plying the streets nearby.

Some robots with human elements are already being tested in workplaces. Oregon-based Agility Robotics announced shortly before the conference that it is bringing its tote-carrying warehouse robot Digit to a Texas distribution facility run by Mercado Libre, the Latin American e-commerce giant. Much like the Olaf robot, it has inverted legs that are more birdlike than human.

Industrial robots performing single tasks are already commonplace in car assembly and other manufacturing. They work with a level of speed and precision that’s difficult for today’s humanoids — or humans themselves — to match.

The head of a robotics trade group founded in 1974 is now lobbying the U.S. government to develop a stronger national strategy to advance the development of homegrown robots, be they humanoids or otherwise.

“We have a lot of strong technology, we have the AI expertise here in the U.S.,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, after touring the expo. “So I think it remains to be seen who is the ultimate leader in this. But right now, China has certainly a lot more momentum on humanoids.”

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Associated Press journalist Terry Chea contributed to this report.

Yuka Iwashita, right, interacts with a robotic hand at the Alt-Bionics table during the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

People watch as a robot, made by Weave Robotics, folds clothes during the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Robots, made by Weave Robotics, fold clothes inside the exhibition room at the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

Kochi Sato, left, shakes hands with a humanoid robot during the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

A man records a humanoid robot inside the exhibition room at the Humanoids Summit, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025, in Mountain View, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding relatively steady, for now, following sharp swings up and down since the war with Iran began and sent oil prices spurting. The S&P 500 was flat in early trading Tuesday, a day after careening from a sharp early loss to a solid gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 34 points, and the Nasdaq composite edged up 0.2%. Trading was also relatively calm in the oil market, which has been the center of action because of worries about the potential for long-term disruptions to the energy industry in the Middle East.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Trading steadied early Tuesday and crude prices eased after wild swings this week with investors trying to figure out how long the war with Iran will continue.

Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.2% before the opening bell, while S&P 500 futures inched up 0.1%. Futures for the Nasdaq were up 0.2%.

On Monday, markets swung from big losses to finish the day with gains, while oil prices neared $120 per barrel before falling back to about $90. Oil prices inched down further early Tuesday.

Helping to assuage investors’ fears, U.S. President Donald Trump told CBS News on Monday that he thinks “the war is very complete, pretty much.” However, Trump also made other somewhat contradictory comments that seemed to threaten intensified action against Iran if it makes any “attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply.”

Iran launched new attacks on Tuesday at Israel and Gulf Arab countries, keeping pressure on the Middle East in a war started by Israel and the United States 10 days ago that has sent oil prices surging.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell $5.44 to $89.33 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, dipped $6.97 to $91.99 a barrel. Oil prices are still up about 34% since the war began.

The average U.S. price for a gallon of gas continued to climb, rising to $3.54, according to auto club AAA on Tuesday. That average was just under $3 a gallon in the days before the conflict began, and $3.11 last week.

There is a great deal of uncertainty about just how high oil prices will go and how long they will stay there because of disruptions to Middle East energy facilities.

If oil prices stay very high for very long, household budgets already stretched by high inflation could break under the pressure. Companies would see their own bills jump for fuel and to stock items on their store shelves or in their data warehouses.

Concerns have focused on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway off Iran’s coast that a fifth of the world’s oil sails through on a typical day. Iran has threatened to set fire to ships sailing the strait.

Global shares rebounded Tuesday from their sharp declines a day before.

France's CAC 40 added 2.1% in early trading, while Germany's DAX surged 2.5%. Britain's FTSE 100 gained 1.7%.

In Asia, Tokyo's benchmark Nikkei 225 added 2.9% to finish at 54,248.39 after the government released revised economic data that showed Japan's economy grew slightly faster than initially estimated in the final quarter of last year, boosted by solid business investments.

Japan's economy expanded at an annual pace of 1.3%. The initial estimate was a much weaker 0.2%.

“Today is the rebound, obviously positive comments from President Trump overnight, we’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the war," said Neil Newman, a managing director and head of strategy at Astris Advisory Japan.

"So volatility is going to remain with us but things are certainly looking a lot brighter today,” he said.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.1% to 8,692.60. South Korea's Kospi jumped 5.4% to 5,532.59.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 2.2% to 25,959.90, while the Shanghai Composite index rose 0.7% to 4,123.14.

South Korea’s Kospi, where extremely volatile trading set off two circuit breakers in the past week, including Monday, rose more than 5% Tuesday.

In currency trading, the U.S. dollar rose to 157.78 Japanese yen from 157.67 yen. The euro was trading at $1.1646, up from $1.1636.

AP Videographer Ayaka McGill in Tokyo contributed.

Meric Greenbaum works on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Pedestrians mill about outside the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Friday, March 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

U.S. President Donald Trump is seen on a screen as traders work at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency trader react near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), rear center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, rear left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)