🇨🇳 China quietly captured the humanoid robot market in 2025

While headlines suggest a coming humanoid robot boom, the actual sales picture is still small and overwhelmingly Chinese.

🖱 According to Omdia, only 13,318 humanoid robots were sold globally in 2025, far below the hype cycle.

🖱 Chinese manufacturers took the entire top-5 by unit sales, locking up nearly all commercial deployments.

🖱 AgiBot led the market with 5,168 units, followed by Unitree Robotics (4,200) and UBTech (1,000).

🖱 Leju Robotics and Engine AI rounded out the top-5, though neither disclosed exact shipment numbers.

🖱 The demand is largely domestic, driven by factory automation, service pilots, and aggressive state-backed experimentation.

🖱 At CES 2026, Chinese humanoids dominated the floor playing table tennis, cleaning, doing martial arts signaling confidence and manufacturing readiness more than real-world scale.

🖱 Meanwhile, the most famous Western humanoid developer, Boston Dynamics, has almost no sales despite a decade of viral demos.

🖱 This year, Boston Dynamics finally unveiled a commercial Atlas aimed at factories, capable of lifting 30–50 kg, swapping its own batteries, and operating 24/7.

🖱 Hyundai, which owns Boston Dynamics, plans to deploy Atlas in its own factories but for now, the public demo remains animation-only.

🖱 The contrast is stark: China is shipping imperfect robots today, while the US is still polishing perfect robots for tomorrow.

Humanoid robotics is no longer a question of who has the best demos it’s becoming a race about who’s willing to manufacture early, ship at low margins, and learn in public.

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🇺🇸 OnlyFans creators are redefining America’s “extraordinary talent” visa

A US visa category once designed for elite artists and performers is now being increasingly used by influencers and OnlyFans creators, reshaping how “extraordinary ability” is interpreted.

🖱 According to The Guardian, social media influencers and OnlyFans models now dominate O-1 visa applications, a program historically reserved for top-tier actors, musicians, and cultural figures.

🖱 The O-1 visa requires proof of “extraordinary ability,” but in practice this is increasingly demonstrated through follower counts, engagement metrics, and platform earnings rather than traditional awards or critical acclaim.

🖱 Immigration lawyers report a sharp rise in applications from digital creators over the past few years, accelerated by the pandemic-era boom in online content businesses.

🖱 Some applicants earn five- or six-figure annual incomes from platforms like OnlyFans, which are now being accepted as evidence of commercial success and distinction.

🖱 Approval numbers for O-1 visas have grown steadily over the past decade, even as other work visa pathways remain capped or politically constrained.

🖱 Critics argue the trend dilutes the original intent of the visa, replacing artistic excellence with algorithm-driven popularity.

🖱 Supporters counter that digital creators are legitimate cultural and economic actors, exporting American-style media influence globally and generating real revenue.

🖱 For many creators, the O-1 has become one of the few viable immigration routes left especially as H-1B visas remain lottery-based and highly restricted.

🖱 As one lawyer put it, this is simply “the American dream, updated for the internet age.”

What used to reward Oscars and Grammys is now rewarding reach, monetization, and attention turning immigration policy into a mirror of the creator economy itself.

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🔒 VC & startup newsletters worth your attention

If you want to stay sharp on deals, funds, and trends, you don’t need Twitter doom-scrolling just 5–10 minutes a day and a few trusted inbox reads. Here’s a clean starter pac:

🖱 StrictlyVC: Operational updates on deals, fund moves, and investor interviews. For quickly orienting yourself in the week’s most important events.

🖱 Term Sheet (Fortune): One of the most-read VC newsletters globally. For tracking major rounds, new funds, and shifts in LP strategy.

🖱 Not Boring (Packy McCormick): Deep dives on companies and long-term trends through a venture lens. For non-obvious insights and big-picture thinking.

🖱 a16z Tech Newsletter: Research and analysis from Andreessen Horowitz across AI, biotech, fintech, and more. For strategic frameworks rather than daily noise.

🖱 The Diff (By Byrne Hobart): Thoughtful essays on markets, companies, and capital structures. For understanding venture through macro and corporate finance.

🖱 PitchBook — The Daily Pitch: A daily briefing on private markets and venture activity. For staying up to date on deals and trends with minimal effort.

🖱 Axios Pro Rata: Short, sharp updates on deals and dealmakers across VC, PE, and M&A. Perfect if you like the “one-minute, straight-to-the-point” format.

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🚁 Walmart’s drone rollout signals a shift from pilots to scale

A partnership once framed as experimentation is hardening into infrastructure, as Alphabet’s Wing deepens its integration with Walmart’s delivery engine.

🖱 TechCrunch reports that Wing will activate drone operations at 150 additional Walmart locations, its most aggressive expansion so far.

🖱 The move pushes the total footprint to 270+ stores, giving aerial delivery access to roughly one in ten Americans.

🖱 Wing is Alphabet’s autonomous delivery arm, but Walmart is now its clearest path to commercial relevance.

🖱 The drones are optimized for lightweight, high-urgency orders groceries, household staples, and forgotten essentials dropped by tether in minutes.

🖱 Walmart says repeat usage is already common in live markets, indicating behavioral adoption rather than curiosity-driven trials.

🖱 The expansion prioritizes dense suburban corridors where speed, not bulk, defines customer value.

🖱 From Walmart’s side, drones ease labor pressure and compress last-mile costs while narrowing Amazon’s speed advantage.

🖱 For Alphabet, Wing stands out as a rare moonshot converting autonomy into operating revenue. Regulatory friction remains, but the scale implies increasing FAA comfort with routine drone flights.

Drones are shifting from marketing story to operational tool inside Walmart.

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🛰 Starlink gets a green light but not a blank check

The FCC has approved SpaceX’s plan to deploy 7,500 additional second-generation Starlink satellites, pushing the constellation toward a new scale milestone.

🖱 The approval raises the total number of Starlink satellites to ~15,000, cementing SpaceX as the dominant player in low-Earth orbit broadband.

🖱 SpaceX originally sought authorization for 30,000 satellites, but regulators have so far cleared only about half of that request.

🖱 The FCC attached firm deadlines: 50% of the newly approved satellites must be operational by December 2028, with full deployment required by December 2031.

🖱 Regulators also removed earlier limits on overlapping coverage and network capacity, clearing the way for direct-to-smartphone connectivity outside the US.

🖱 SpaceX has previously promised download speeds approaching 1 Gbit/s, positioning Starlink closer to terrestrial broadband performance.

🖱 Astronomers continue to push back, citing light pollution and interference with ground-based observations.

🖱 There are also orbital safety concerns, earlier this year SpaceX lowered the altitude of some satellites to reduce collision risk.

🖱 The decision signals growing regulatory comfort with mega-constellations, even as scientific and debris risks remain unresolved.

Starlink’s expansion is no longer a question of if, but how far regulators are willing to let orbital infrastructure scale before the costs become unavoidable.

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BREAKING: CoinGecko may be sold for ~$500M

Crypto data platform CoinGecko is exploring a potential sale and is targeting a valuation of around $500M, according to sources. The company has hired Moelis to advise on the process, which is still at an early stage.

The timing is notable. In 2025, crypto M&A reached about $8.6B across 133 deals, a record year for consolidation. Major transactions included Coinbase’s $2.9B acquisition of Deribit and Kraken’s $1.5B purchase of NinjaTrader.

Founded in 2014, CoinGecko is one of the largest independent crypto data platforms. Data and infrastructure assets are increasingly becoming strategic acquisition targets.

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JUST IN: Elon Musk vs. OpenAI trial set for April 27

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“Controlling your time is the highest dividend money pays.”

- Morgan Housel

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🤖 Apple puts Google’s Gemini inside Siri

Apple and Google confirmed a multi year AI partnership.

🖱 Gemini will handle specific Siri functions like summarization and task planning. Core logic, UI, and system control stay on Apple’s own models.

🖱 Apple says Apple Intelligence still runs on device and on its Private Cloud Compute servers. User data does not flow into Google infrastructure.

🖱 Media framed this as Google taking over Apple’s AI stack. In reality, it is a narrow dependency on models that currently outperform.

The irony is timing. Google spent years catching up after ChatGPT. Now Apple is buying the result.

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Pentagon will integrate Grok into military AI systems

🖱 The US Department of Defense plans to connect Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok to Pentagon networks, including both unclassified and classified systems later this month.

🖱 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Grok will operate alongside Google’s AI tools inside the military’s AI framework under a newly announced AI acceleration strategy.

🖱 The deployment aims to feed military and intelligence data into the model for analysis across Pentagon operations.

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❓ What is the average revenue that companies generate from a single active user?

The highest Netflix subscription costs $24.99, which is still lower than the revenue Zuckerberg earns from each user.

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"We will continue to ignore political and economic forecasts, which are an expensive distraction for many investors and businessmen."

- Warren Buffett

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OpenAI acqui hires the team behind Convogo

OpenAI is hiring the founders and team of Convogo, an AI tool used by executive coaches and HR teams for assessments and feedback reports.

🖱 OpenAI is not acquiring Convogo’s product or IP. The team joins to work on AI cloud efforts. The deal is all stock. Convogo will be shut down.

🖱 This is OpenAI’s 9th acquisition in about a year. In most cases, the product disappears and the team is absorbed.

M&A here is about talent density, not expanding a product lineup.

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Why serial acquirers outperform

Long term data shows serial acquirers beat the market. The strongest results come from teams that treat capital allocation as a core skill, not a side effect of growth.

Search funds and disciplined roll ups show especially strong outcomes. Average search fund returns since 1984 are around 35% annually.

Here are examples that fit this model:

🖱 Kingsway Financial Services (NYSE: KFS)
Public company using a search fund model. Operators are selected first, acquisitions come second.

🖱 Teqnion (OMX: TEQ)
Owner of 36 small industrial businesses with strict capital discipline and decentralized operations.

🖱 Diploma PLC (LSE: DPLM)
Industrial components supplier with 15 years of ~16% EPS CAGR driven by steady bolt on deals.

🖱 VitalHub (TSX: VHI)
Healthcare software company with subscription heavy revenue and low churn. Active acquirer.

🖱 Lumine Group (TSX: LMN)
Constellation Software spin off focused on telecom and media vertical software.

🖱 Omda AS (OSL: CSAM)
Hospital software provider with public sector contracts and high recurring revenue.

🖱 TerraVest Industries (TSX: TVK)
Propane and energy infrastructure roll up with acquisitions priced below 10x FCF.

The pattern repeats across regions and sectors.
Boring businesses, bought well, run by strong operators, compound quietly over time.

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How dudes start moving after getting an entry level role at a D-tier VC firm.

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