Germany-based robotics firm Agile Robots reportedly plans to produce up to 2,000 humanoid robots next year through a fresh partnership with Nvidia, targeting universities and corporate research labs.

The collaboration was announced at Nvidia’s GTC conference in Berlin. Agile CEO Zhaopeng Chen told Reuters the pair are set to begin production of the Agile ONE S and ONE SN humanoid robot models by the end of 2026, expecting to manufacture between 1,000 and 2,000 units. Stanford University and ETH Zurich are among potential customers.

The Agile ONE SN, with the N standing for Nvidia to denote the chipmaker-specific configuration, combines Agile’s humanoid hardware with Nvidia’s Jetson Thor onboard computing platform and Isaac GR00T robotics AI model. It features five-fingered hands, cameras and other sensors to support dexterous manipulation and interaction with the physical environment.

Standing 1.4 metres tall and weighing around 40 kilograms, the robot is designed as a smaller alternative to full-sized humanoids. Nvidia said the robot intends to simplify the integration of hardware, simulation, training and deployment tools on a single platform, “cutting setup time from weeks to days”.

Spencer Huang, Nvidia’s product director for robotics, told Reuters the standardised configuration could save researchers two or three months of work procuring separately purchased components. “If we can bring researchers something that’s already 80% of the way there, it accelerates their development,” he said.

Nvidia said Agile’s ONE SN is scheduled to become available in early 2027, as competition intensifies among European humanoid developers.

ChatGPT moment
Alongside the partnership, the chipmaker also revealed its expanded robotics development platform, Nvidia Isaac, equipped with new tools for training and deploying AI-powered machines. The expanded platform includes Isaac OS, an open-source runtime framework, and Isaac Lab 3.0, a robot learning framework designed to train and refine robot skills. The company also introduced new reference workflows and simulation resources to speed up development.

“General-purpose robotics is advancing at extraordinary speed — the ChatGPT moment for robotics is fast approaching,” noted Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, adding the platform would give developers “the models, data, simulation tools and computing systems to bring physical AI to the world’s largest industries”.

The chipmaker added European robotics players including UK-based Humanoid, French start-up Hugging Face and Swedish firm ABB Robotics are applying its technologies including Nvidia Isaac to industrial autonomous machines.

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INTERVIEW: Nokia chief technology and AI officer Pallavi Mahajan and Nvidia SVP of telco Ronnie Vasishta told the Mobile World Live Podcast their AI-RAN partnership is showing tangible progress, as they announced close to 20 operators are lined up for lab and commercial trials of the technology.

In an exclusive interview to outline progress of their efforts, Vasishta and Mahajan highlighted the fact it had only been 12 months since the two companies announced a joint AI-RAN partnership, which included a $1 billion investment from Nvidia into the Finnish vendor.

A year on, today (21 October) at Nvidia’s GTC 2026 event in Berlin the duo announced almost 20 operators globally have committed to AI-RAN collaboration, including 10 from EMEA. Mahajan said these operators are at different stages, lined up for both lab and commercial trials.

In 2027 trials are expected from BT Group, Deutsche Telekom and Elisa, with the latter preparing for commercial deployment.

In the US, T-Mobile has completed what was claimed as the world’s first AI-RAN call on a live network, while in France Orange is introducing new voice and intelligence services for enterprises based on the technology.

Speed of light
Vasishta told MWL it was hard to overhype development based on the progress it had seen over the past year, and the number of trials and deployment is only set to grow.

“A year ago, or two years ago for sure, I think people would have scoffed at the idea. Nokia talking about operator commercialisation with AI-RAN, I think, that would have been perhaps seen as somewhat sceptical.”

Mahajan concurred, describing the pace of development as occurring “at the speed of light” with the game changer centred on being able to outline the true “value of what AI brings in terms of making RAN efficient” such as significant spectrum efficiency gains.

“In the next few years, the distinction between the networks and computing infrastructure will just blur,” she said, inevitably opening up a host of operator opportunities across applications beyond 5G and 6G.

Vasishta added Nvidia had started on the journey of software-defined RAN eight years ago and the inclusion of Nokia in 2025 had accelerated this dramatically.

“We see all operators around the world are created differently. They service different markets, they have different DNA, but overall, all of them have gravitated towards this concept now of AI RAN.”

Click here to listen to the full interview.

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With Nvidia’s GTC Berlin event in full swing, the company’s telecoms boss Ronnie Vasishta and Nokia chief technology and AI officer Pallavi Mahajan sit down with the Mobile World Live Podcast in an exclusive interview to reveal the next stage of the pair’s AI-RAN journey, as they team up with European heavyweights to turn networks into distributed intelligence platforms.

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00:00 — AI-RAN explained
7:20 — Operator trials
11:00 — Beyond edge hype
15:05 — AI-RAN economics
17:45 — Sovereign AI
21:10 — Commercialisation and 6G

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Mercedes-Benz expanded its partnership with Nvidia to develop driver assistance and automated driving systems based on the carmaker’s MB.OS platform and the chip company’s computing technology and software.

The agreement combines Mercedes-Benz engineering and its MB.OS operating system with Nvidia’s Hyperion computing and sensor architecture, Alpamayo driving software and Halos safety system.

Mercedes CTO Jorg Burzer hailed Nvidia as its “most important strategic partner in automated driving”, describing the urban point-to-point assistance system the two built as the first of its kind from Mercedes for Western markets.

He added the extension is a milestone built on years of mutual trust, while stressing customers will still expect the safety standards the brand is known for.

Ali Kani, VP of automotive at Nvidia, said accelerated computing could help vehicles interpret their surroundings and respond to complex driving situations. He added the companies aim to make autonomous driving suitable for everyday use.

MB.OS will manage driving functions and over-the-air updates alongside Nvidia’s Hyperion in-vehicle computing platform. Alpamayo will provide software for urban point-to-point assistance, active safety and automated parking, while Halos will add a safety layer alongside Mercedes-Benz’s own systems.

The companies noted the technologies will also support future SAE Level 4 applications, including robolimousines.

Mercedes-Benz also uses Nvidia technology for vehicle-engineering simulations and in its MO360 digital-production platform, covering virtual planning and AI applications. The companies plan to expand the work across the carmaker’s global production network.

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Apple, Nvidia and EchoStar chair Charlie Ergen reportedly committed $25 million each for the construction of US President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project, which has raised $333 million to date in private donations.

The Washington Post reported “the vast majority of the funds raised came from companies and wealthy individuals with interests before the federal government” after obtaining an internal spreadsheet used to track contributions for the fundraising effort.

The Post noted more than three-quarters of the funding was pledged in amounts of at least $5 million, with Amazon, Comcast, Microsoft, and T-Mobile US among the largest corporate donors.

It stated Nvidia and Ergen, among others, requested their donations be kept anonymous

The news site noted companies or executives of firms that have had contracts with the federal government during Trump’s second term accounted for about half of the total funds raised for the project which also includes office space and an underground military facility.

According to internal contractor documents obtained by the Post, the total cost of the project is now $600 million after Trump initially stated he and wealthy donors would pay the estimated $400 million project, although Reuters reported he later unsuccessfully asked Congress for $1 billion. The Post noted Trump’s name did not appear on the list of 67 donors who contributed $10,000 or more to the project.

The funds for the project are administered through a complex, multi-step pipeline involving a private nonprofit, federal agencies and direct oversight by the Trump administration.

The news agency reported Nvidia became “a top contributor to the ballroom in October 2025, nearly three months after it struck a groundbreaking pact with Trump to sell advanced microchips to China despite national security concerns”.

“As an American company, our support for the United States is paramount, and independent of any business interests,” a representative for Nvidia told Mobile World Live. “We were proud to be able to make a donation to a nonpartisan trust that serves all Americans and have said so publicly since the donation was made.” 

Apple and EchoStar did not reply to requests for comment on their contributions.

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Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (pictured) reportedly outlined plans to invest $2 billion across Europe to ramp adoption of AI technology and the company’s products.

Bloomberg reported Huang revealed the plan yesterday (13 October) during an event in Paris, which is part of a tour including stops in London and Berlin.

Huang said the fresh investments, to be announced in the next week, are on top of $8 billion the company previously committed to the continent, according to the news agency.

He also announced new funding for French start-ups Doctolib, Genesis AI, Pigment and Entalpic.

Nvidia’s founder also promoted open-source models, arguing their lower costs and greater flexibility could help Europe close the gap with the US on advanced AI.

The chipmaker is a major partner of French company Mistral AI, which develops open-weight AI models. It has invested in Mistral and supplies accelerators for its data centres.

“Open models are important as they can be customised for languages and for your own sovereignty,” he said, according to Bloomberg.

Nvidia’s GTC Berlin conference is schedule for 20-22 October.

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Nvidia is reportedly in talks to either acquire or increase its investment in open-source start-up Reflection AI, as it seeks to strengthen its position in open-weight AI models and challenge lower cost Chinese rivals.

Sources told the Financial Times (FT) discussions remain at an early stage and could lead to a full acquisition, further equity investment or a deal covering chips and computing capacity. An acqui-hire, under which Nvidia would recruit staff and license technology, is another option.

A deal could apparently be reached in the coming weeks, though the terms under discussion remain unclear.

According to the report, Nvidia has already invested $800 million in Reflection AI, which was valued at $25 billion in a March funding round. Founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers, the start-up develops AI models and tools for software development.

Reflection launched its first open-weight model, Beam, last week, targeting coding and agentic tasks as it looks to compete with Chinese models such as DeepSeek and Kimi.

Open-weight models allow businesses and developers to customise AI systems and run them on their own infrastructure, potentially cutting costs compared with closed services such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude.

Although Nvidia has its own Nemotron family of open-weight models, FT said it lacks a frontier-scale model of its own. In an essay published in July, CEO Jensen Huang called for a domestic open-weight “ecosystem” across the US, arguing it was essential for “creating opportunities for innovation and prosperity across the country”. “In fact, openness may be one of the most important paths to AI safety and security,” he argued, adding “relying solely on closed models is not inherently safe” as “they can be breached, misused, or fail in ways that outsiders cannot detect”.

Reflection AI has also secured substantial computing capacity from SpaceX. The deal, struck in June, gives the start-up access to Nvidia’s GB300 chips at SpaceX’s Colossus 2 facility in Memphis, Tennessee, for $150 million per month through 2029.

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Paul Krugman is the greatest econ writer in the world, and also a legendary economist. But I sometimes feel that he has a blind spot when it comes to the value of new technologies. In 1998 he famously wrote: The growth of the Internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in ‘Metcalfe’s law’—which states that […]

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Nvidia on Wednesday forecast a 70 per cent jump in revenue next fiscal year, underscoring unabated demand for AI computing, while warning about shortages of memory components.