Tether-led funding injects up to $1.4B into humanoid robotics firm NEURA, with Nvidia and Amazon among backers
Tether — the company behind the world’s biggest stablecoin, USDT — announced Wednesday that it has led a financing round of up to $1.4 billion into NEURA Robotics, a German humanoid-robotics startup. The deal is being billed as one of the largest private investment rounds ever recorded in the physical-AI and humanoid-robot sectors.
Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Metzingen, Germany, NEURA builds a broad portfolio of robotic systems: humanoid robots, precision robotic arms, autonomous mobile robots and service robots designed to operate safely alongside people. Alongside Tether, the investor syndicate includes major strategic names such as Nvidia, Amazon, Qualcomm Technologies, Bosch, imec.xpand, Schaeffler, the European Investment Bank, Lingotto Horizon and InterAlpen Partners.
NEURA founder and CEO David Reger framed the investment as part of a larger shift: “The future of AI will not only live on screens. It will move, interact, learn and work beside us in the real world. We believe physical AI and cognitive robotics will become one of the largest technology shifts of the coming decades, transforming industries ranging from manufacturing and logistics to healthcare, services, and household robotics.”
Beyond capital, Tether said it will contribute technology to NEURA’s ecosystem. That includes its open-source Wallet Development Kit (WDK), which can embed self-custodial wallet functionality directly into robots — enabling machines to receive payment for completed tasks and execute transactions within predefined operational rules. Tether will also integrate QVAC, its edge AI runtime, into NEURA’s Neuraverse software platform. QVAC runs AI models locally on a device rather than in remote clouds, lowering latency, improving uptime and reducing dependence on centralized compute — traits critical for industrial deployments.
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino emphasized the convergence between autonomous robotics and decentralized financial infrastructure: “As robotics moves beyond scripted automation and into true autonomy, the infrastructure behind it must evolve as well. Autonomous machines need the ability to process information locally, make decisions, and transact without relying on centralized intermediaries. QVAC brings that edge-first intelligence to the platform while WDK handles the secure financial layer, together enabling machines to execute tasks, account for outcomes, and operate independently.”
For crypto-focused readers, the tie-up highlights a practical application of on-device crypto infrastructure: self-custodial wallets and edge-first AI could let robots participate in microtransactions, automated billing and decentralized payment flows as part of industrial and service workflows. The deal also signals growing interest from major cloud, chip and industrial players in combining physical AI with crypto-native tooling — a trend likely to draw regulatory and security attention as deployments scale.
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