Tether deepens AI bet, backs Italian firm’s humanoid robots

• Tether joins an €70M ($81M) funding round for Generative Bionics, an Italian AI robotics startup.
• Funding accelerates industrial-grade humanoid robots and a new production facility.
• Part of Tether’s broader strategy to back decentralized, emerging AI technologies.
• Adds to Tether’s growing AI portfolio, including Blackrock Neurotech and a 20,000-GPU compute network.

Tether is doubling down on artificial intelligence innovation — this time by backing Generative Bionics, an Italian robotics startup building next-generation humanoid machines designed for industrial-scale performance.

The company revealed it was part of an €70 million ($81M) funding round, led by CDP Venture Capital’s AI fund, alongside AMD Ventures, Duferco, Eni Next and RoboIT. The investment marks one of Tether’s most significant steps into the physical AI and robotics arena to date.

According to Tether, its funding will directly support the development of Physical AI systems, edge-AI solutions, and the industrial validation of the startup’s humanoid platform. This includes the rollout of its first production facility, positioning the company to begin manufacturing humanoid robots capable of functioning reliably in factory environments and other large-scale industrial settings.

Generative Bionics, a spinoff of the Italian Institute of Technology, specializes in building advanced humanoid robots with “real-world physical AI capabilities.” These robots are meant to bridge the gap between modern AI models and physical task execution — from collaborative factory work to high-precision industrial operations.

Tether said its support aligns with its broader strategy to push emerging technologies that expand human potential while reducing dependence on centralized Big Tech–controlled systems. The firm highlighted its five-pillar investment thesis — finance, power, data, education, and evolution — with this AI robotics investment falling under the evolution category.

This move is part of Tether’s increasingly aggressive investment pattern in AI. The company recently signaled interest in a massive $1.15B investment into German AI robotics firm Neura, expanding its footprint in the high-end robotics space. It has also backed Blackrock Neurotech in the brain-computer interface sector and teamed up with Northern Data and Rumble to deploy a 20,000-GPU global compute network, supporting open and privacy-preserving AI research.

As one of the largest and most profitable companies in crypto, Tether appears to be positioning itself as a force in the next era of robotics and AI infrastructure — far beyond the stablecoin world it dominates today.