Ex-Tesla, Google, Nvidia leaders to build next-gen humanoid robot

UMA (Universal Mechanical Assistant) is a newly launched robotics intelligence company founded by former leaders from Tesla, Google DeepMind, Nvidia, and Hugging Face. The company’s mission is to develop next-generation humanoid and mobile robots capable of performing real-world industrial tasks alongside humans. The founding team includes experts who have contributed significantly to advances in deep learning, robot learning, and open-source AI, such as Rémi Cadene, Pierre Sermanet, Simon Alibert, and Robert Knight. UMA is focusing on creating compact, dual-armed mobile robots designed for environments like warehouses, assembly lines, hospitals, labs, and homes. UMA’s vision aligns with a broader market trend where robotics, rather than just generative AI or language models, will define the next era of artificial intelligence. Analysts project the global humanoid and mobile robotics market to reach $243 billion by 2035 and expand into a multi-trillion-dollar industry by 2050. This growth is driven by critical labor shortages—