Our cofounder @castorhat just published his #ICRA2026 recap. The short version: robotics raised nearly $14B last year and the field is moving faster than ever, but the most telling thing in Vienna was how little the hardware actually changed 🧵
His close: ICRA 2026 "felt less like a hardware show and more like an industry growing up." The question isn't whose robot can pull off the demo anymore - most can. It's whose robot still works on the thousandth try, in a room nobody set up for it in advance.
From 1,550+ applications worldwide, 14 ambassadors have been selected for the first PrismaX Ambassador Cohort.
United by a shared belief in the future of physical AI, they will help grow the PrismaX community around the world.
Meet the cohort 👇
🇳🇬 @IdaraAkpabio882 (Nigeria)
Focused on expanding access to robotics and teleoperation, Idara is helping bring Physical AI to more communities across Africa.
🇨🇳 @Hz9r8nxlJason (China)
Working at the intersection of global trade and technology, Jason is excited about the impact
Pouring popcorn. Folding a shirt. Stacking blocks. The manipulation demos at #ICRA2026 were genuinely better this year.
But the hard part was never the demo. It's doing the same task 500 times, unsupervised, in a room nobody arranged in advance.