Humanoid robots keep on making new breakthroughs. Now, Google DeepMind is partnering up with one of the most important private robotics companies in the world.

‍What’s happening:‍

• Google DeepMind has announced a new partnership with humanoid robot company Apptronik
  

The big idea:‍

• Google DeepMind will provide Apptronik with leading edge artificial intelligence models that can be used by their robotics hardware and is aiming to enable a much deeper level of functionality
  
• Apptronik plans to integrate Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence technology into their flagship humanoid robot Apollo, which is already capable of lifting items, performing manual labour and detecting obstacles
  

Why it matters:‍

• There has been an ongoing race to develop the next breakthrough humanoid robot in both Silicon Valley and Wall Street, with venture backed startups such as Figure launching new autonomous robotics technology and Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) recently unveiling their humanoid robot prototype Optimus
  
• Robotics and artificial intelligence also continue to overlap, with startup Physical Intelligence recently raising a mega round from OpenAI and prominent venture capital fund Lux Capital to build a generalist brain for robots
  

Going deeper:‍

• Apptronik has developed robots that are currently being tested in pilot projects with companies such as Mercedes-Benz, Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and even NASA

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