Stablecoin issuer Tether is putting its best foot forward towards investing in AI-powered autonomous robots. According to the official announcement from Wednesday, NEURA Robotics has secured one of the largest funding rounds the robotics industry has ever seen, raising up to $1.4 billion in a Series C deal.
The funding round comes as a special surprise for the crypto industry with Tether emerging as the headline investor for a deal that could accelerate the development of humanoid robots capable of working, learning, and even making payments on their own.
While Tether has gradually expanded beyond crypto into areas like artificial intelligence and energy infrastructure, the investment marks one of its biggest moves into the physical world of robotics.
The funding round also brought together an unusually diverse group of backers. Technology giants including NVIDIA, Amazon, and Qualcomm joined industrial leaders like Bosch and Schaeffler, alongside the European Investment Bank and several major investment firms.
For NEURA, the money isn’t simply about building better robots. The company wants to create what it calls “Physical AI”, which is an artificial intelligence that can interact with the real world instead of existing only behind computer screens.
Founder and CEO David Reger has repeatedly argued that the next phase of AI will be less about chatbots and more about intelligent machines that can work alongside people in factories, warehouses, hospitals, offices, and eventually homes.
NEURA’s 4NE1 takes center stage for development
NEURA’s humanoid robot, 4NE1, is at the heart of that vision. Unlike traditional industrial robots that are designed to repeat the same task over and over, 4NE1 is designed to adapt to changing environments and collaborate with humans.
The new capital will allow the company to scale production and develop the software that drives these machines. But perhaps the most interesting part of the story isn’t the robot itself, but the ecosystem around it.
Tether’s role in the funding
NEURA is building what it calls the Neuraverse, a shared network where robots can exchange skills and experiences. Instead of each machine learning everything from scratch, robots connected to the platform could continuously improve by sharing what they’ve learned in the real world.
Think of it as cloud computing for robotics, where one robot’s experience could eventually benefit thousands of others. This is where Tether’s involvement comes into play.
The company aims to introduce its Wallet Development Kit into NEURA’s robotics. This will grant autonomous machines the ability to manage their self-owned digital wallets. The implication here is that the machines could be able to conduct transactions such as paying for services, supplies, and settling other matters without going through any banks.
For instance, a warehouse autonomous robot could eventually order parts and pay for other services directly without going through banks.
QVAC technology by Tether will also help to bring local edge AI to the table, meaning that robots could process decisions and transactions within themselves, thus without needing cloud servers all the time.
The investment clearly highlights the growing conviction within Tether that the economies of the future might involve machines conducting business with each other as opposed to individuals.
