Category: Emerging Technologies

Chinese automaker XPeng said on Monday, August 24, 2026, that its robotics business had raised more than $900 million in its first funding round, valuing the unit at over $6.3 billion and setting a record for a single private financing in China’s embodied AI sector, according to Reuters.

Record Round for a Standalone Robotics Business

The round was led by IDG Capital, with Tencent and Alibaba participating as strategic investors, XPeng said in a statement. The financing establishes a standalone market valuation for XPeng’s robotics operation, separate from its automotive business, and will fund robotics hardware and software development, training and refinement of XPeng’s Physical AI models, collection of high-quality training data, construction of mass-production infrastructure, and international expansion, according to the company.

At the center of the robotics unit’s strategy is IRON, XPeng’s next-generation general-purpose humanoid robot, which the company says combines a human-like physical design with an internally developed AI and control architecture spanning hardware, software, processors and motion systems. XPeng has said IRON features 76 degrees of freedom across its body, including 21 in each hand. The company plans to begin mass production of IRON by the end of 2026, with initial deployments at its retail stores and industrial campuses, followed by commercial sales and deliveries in China and overseas markets in 2027. XPeng CEO He Xiaopeng said in June he would personally lead the robotics business as the company pushes toward mass production.

Funding Comes Amid Pressure on XPeng’s Core Business

The robotics financing arrives as XPeng’s automotive business faces intensifying competition from domestic Chinese manufacturers and from Tesla in both overseas and domestic markets. According to AI News, XPeng’s publicly traded shares were down more than 7 percent on the day the funding was announced, with a roughly 51 percent decline over the preceding 12 months — underscoring that investors are pricing the robotics division well ahead of, and somewhat independently from, the parent company’s struggling share price. The split suggests investors see China’s embodied-AI and humanoid-robotics race as a distinct growth story from XPeng’s core electric-vehicle competition.

Sources

• Reuters via Yahoo Finance: Xpeng’s robotics unit valued at over $6.3 billion after record funding round
• AI News: XPENG IRON humanoid robot draws record physical AI funding
• Pulse 2.0: XPENG Robotics Raises More Than $900 Million At $6.3+ Billion Valuation As IRON Targets Mass Production In 2026

Nvidia is discussing an equity investment in Perplexity as part of a new funding round that would value the AI search startup at more than $30 billion, The Information reported on August 23, 2026, citing people familiar with the discussions. Reuters also reported the talks but said it could not independently verify the details.

A Fast-Rising Valuation

The prospective round would put Perplexity’s valuation more than 50 percent above the $20 billion mark it reached in a September 2025 round, and above the $23 billion valuation reported in a subsequent January 2026 financing, according to the reporting. Perplexity’s annualized revenue has roughly tripled this year, climbing from about $250 million to more than $750 million, a jump largely attributed to “Perplexity Computer,” an AI agent product that automates multi-step professional tasks and drives significantly higher token consumption than conventional search queries. At $750 million in annualized revenue, a $30 billion valuation would price the company at roughly 40 times sales.

Nvidia is not a new backer: it previously participated in Perplexity’s Series B in January 2024, its unicorn round the same year, and an $18 billion extension round in July 2025 alongside SoftBank Vision Fund 2, NEA and IVP. Per The Information, Nvidia had also weighed a technology-licensing arrangement and hiring some of Perplexity’s staff before the conversation shifted toward a straight equity stake.

Search as AI-Agent Infrastructure

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang has previously said in interviews that Perplexity is his personal go-to AI assistant, and Nvidia has functioned as something of a financial backstop for AI startups in recent years, investing in companies that in turn spend heavily on its chips. Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas has said he is considering a public listing around 2028. The talks come as Perplexity competes not only with Google and OpenAI’s distribution advantages but with agent-native search challengers such as Exa, which Nvidia’s venture arm has also backed.

As of publication, neither Nvidia nor Perplexity has confirmed the terms of the discussions publicly, and the reported valuation and structure could still change before any deal is finalized.

Sources

• The Decoder: Nvidia in talks to invest in Perplexity at $30 billion-plus valuation
• Tech Funding News: Nvidia reportedly eyes Perplexity at a $30B+ valuation as AI search becomes an agent business
• PYMNTS: Nvidia Considers Backing Perplexity at $30 Billion Valuation

Anthropic investors are pushing for a valuation of at least $2 trillion for the AI company’s planned initial public offering, which could launch as soon as October 2026, according to the Financial Times. If it materializes at that level, the listing would be the largest IPO in history, surpassing SpaceX’s $1.77 trillion debut in June 2026.

A Valuation Built on Projected Growth

Six Anthropic backers told the Financial Times that the $2 trillion figure comes from investors and bankers circling the deal rather than from Anthropic itself; senior executives have not confirmed an IPO valuation target even in private conversations, per the FT’s reporting. Anthropic was last valued at roughly $965 billion following a private round in May 2026, meaning a $2 trillion debut would roughly double that mark in under half a year.

The case rests heavily on revenue trajectory. Anthropic said in May that annualized revenue had exceeded $47 billion, and backers now expect that figure to reach between $100 billion and $120 billion by the end of 2026. “If Anthropic is growing 800 per cent a year, you’d think at the incredibly low end they would trade at 30 times [revenue],” one investor told the FT — a multiple that would actually imply a $3 trillion valuation. Investors have pointed to AI-adjacent public companies such as Palantir and Nebius, which have traded near 55 times revenue this year, as rough comparables in the absence of a direct publicly listed rival. Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan are reported to be leading the offering.

Risks Facing the Record Bid

Anthropic’s path to a record-setting debut carries acknowledged risks. The company’s flagship model costs more than two and a half times as much to use as OpenAI’s leading product, according to data from AI analysis firm Artificial Analysis cited in the reporting, while lower-cost Chinese open-weight models continue to close the capability gap. Revenue growth also slowed in June after the U.S. Commerce Department imposed a temporary export control on Anthropic’s top models, though investors told the FT that business rebounded afterward. Nearly $100 billion in venture capital, sovereign wealth and institutional money has flowed into Anthropic during 2026 alone, underscoring how much investor appetite already assumes continued hypergrowth.

Because the valuation target originates with investors and bankers rather than an official filing or company confirmation, it should be read as a market expectation rather than a settled figure. Anthropic has not publicly disclosed IPO plans, pricing, or timing as of this writing.

Sources

• PYMNTS: Anthropic Could Seek $2 Trillion Valuation in Record IPO
• Yahoo Finance: Anthropic investors target $2 trillion IPO valuation in October