Exclusive: Reframe Raises Funds to Bring Amazon Robotics Know-How to Home Building
For all the talk of robots that look like humans, the next robots to move into people’s houses could look more like ducks.
Sales of such a robot, made by open-source model platform Hugging Face, reached https://x.com/Thom_Wolf/status/2093295950605279501?s=20">more than $2.5 million on its first day on Thursday.
Microduck, which costs $399, waddles around on two tiny legs and cocks its Wall-E-like head to inspect its surroundings.
It could fulfill https://www.theinformation.com/articles/sutskevers-fate-openais-next-deal-hit-robot-13-predictions-2026">my prediction from January that the most successful home robot of the year will not be a full-blown humanoid, but a more humble robot designed for a single purpose.
In this case, that purpose is mostly https://x.com/ClementDelangue/status/2093309872733315301?s=20">being https://x.com/ClementDelangue/status/2092941842228654558?s=20">really https://x.com/Thom_Wolf/status/2092959363992326236?s=20">cute.
One person who is sure to appreciate the cute factor is Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, which has agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nvidia-agrees-buy-open-source-model-repository-hugging-face-12-9-billion">my colleagues reported last week.
Huang has made clear his fondness for robots, which he sees as the next frontier for AI after language models, and has brought Disney’s droids on stage during his keynotes.
The robot’s software (but not its hardware design) is open-source, which Nvidia is championing in its in-house efforts as well as acquisitions like Hugging Face.
It learns new skills, such as roller skating or kicking a mini soccer ball, using reinforcement learning in computer simulations—a perfect application for Nvidia’s AI chips.
Meanwhile, 1X Technologies, which received over 10,000 pre-orders for its home humanoids in October, still has not delivered any to customers. SoftBank is now in talks to buy a majority stake in 1X, https://www.theinformation.com/articles/softbank-talks-buy-majority-stake-humanoid-maker-1x-6-billion-valuation">my colleagues and I reported last week.
Meanwhile . . .
One April morning, Jonathan Talbot drove to the lot in Altadena, Calif., where he was rebuilding after his home was destroyed in last year's Eaton Fire.
A crane lifted pre-built pieces of a new house from three trucks that had hauled them across the country.
A piece of drywall had cracked in transit, and some closet shelves had fallen, but these were easy enough to fix.
By the afternoon, the house was standing. “It was a very emotional day,” said Talbot, who is a product manager at Warner Bros.
Discovery.
When Talbot receives the keys in the next month or two, he’ll become one of the first owners of a house built by Reframe Systems, which uses industrial robot arms to make modular homes in a factory before shipping and assembling them.
The four-year old Massachusetts-based startup raised $40 million in a Series A extension funding round that closed a month ago, co-founder and CEO Vikas Enti told The Information exclusively.