The San Francisco Bay Area is the center of the American artificial intelligence revolution, where the renaissance of robotics investment and innovation in Silicon Valley began, centered around San Francisco. Here, AI is converging with robotics and taking shape.
For example, Waymo’s driverless cars are a common sight in San Francisco. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said the future of AI is physical AI enabled by robotics, including self-driving cars.
Recently, new york times In the case of humanoid robots in particular, the potential for “wintering” of robots was suggested.
However, in Silicon Valley Media’s 2025 technology industry and market forecast released annually by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) on December 10, times The paper noted that it had never discovered a technology that could not find the dark side. He noted: new york timesThe first mentions of artificial intelligence, dating back to around 1953, warned that robots could one day pose a threat to humanity.
Well, we’re alive and well, busily developing humanoid robots and embedding advanced AI chips into flying drones, self-driving vehicles, and other autonomous systems.
Media analysts confirm the advent of the AI era.
The PRSA event featured prominent panelists including:
- Dion Lim of ABC7 Bay Area
- Jon Swartz previously market surveillance and USA Today and now Techstrong.ai
- Rosalie Chan business Insider, Previously published works hour, chicago reportetc.
- don clark new york timespreviously wall street journal.
Lim discussed self-driving cars, highlighting Waymo’s success, partnership with Uber, and expansion beyond San Francisco into Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta, and now Tokyo. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) does not classify self-driving cars as robotics, but they are an embodiment of AI, as is humanoid developer Figure AI.
The panel also examined AI agents and their applications. Swartz has written extensively about AI. He talked about AI ‘super agents’ where one agent would report to another. Swartz observed that while the advancement of AI agents may not be as fast as desired, the trajectory is still promising.
Market and humanoid prospects remain bright
Chan commented on last year’s quiet IPO market. She predicted a rebound in 2026. While others speculate that 2025 will be the turning point, the AI and robotics sector remains vibrant despite a somewhat downturn in the public offering market in 2025.
The Media Predict event was followed by a Humanoid Summit held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. Aaron Prather, who spoke at the event, later posted about the concept of an “intentional stance” on AI robotics.
Prather, who is he?
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Human capital clusters in Silicon Valley and elsewhere
This leads to the importance of human capital, which is essential for the rapid growth of mobile robots, drones, and autonomous vehicles. Brett Adcock, CEO of Figure AI, which has raised $675 million for its AI robotics startup, recently posted that it is “hiring like crazy.”
Financial capital chases human capital. The Bay Area’s top universities fuel the growth of San Francisco and Silicon Valley by educating engineers and technologists solving challenges such as bipedal mechanics, control, and deep learning.
Robotics experts from the San Francisco Bay Area, as well as Japan, India, and Switzerland, now include experienced designers, professors, and industry executives from leading companies. They are now focusing on training and education not only on content from a knowledge graph ontology perspective but also on epistemology from a pedagogical perspective.
In addition to theory and understanding, this diverse group is making real progress. For example, they are developing a hardware platform to help students learn the basics of upper body versus lower body mechanics. Other important topics include manual and robotic dexterity, neck and hip freedom against the backdrop of rapidly changing AI.
The AI industry continues to develop
Last week, NVIDIA announced a significant price cut for its Orin Nano AI chipset. Performance increases 1.7x to 67 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) while cost is cut in half. According to Huang, the chipset supports both general-purpose AI and agent AI, enabling edge intelligence.
Agentic AI humanoid robots that infer mobile robots in an anthropomorphic form are getting closer and closer to reality. These robots may one day be able to retrieve all known knowledge, reason over long periods of time, and react with physical agility. Could this be the following data? Star Trek: The Next generation? No wonder Starfleet’s headquarters is in San Francisco.
About the author
Dr. Albert Hu is the President and Director of Education at SuperTech FT, a San Francisco-based non-profit dedicated to providing education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), robotics, and AI. The company said it delivers “agile technology advancements for an agile workforce.”
Special thanks to Public Relations Consultant Michelle Mclntyre, whose LinkedIn posts helped us document highlights from the Media Predict event.