Tether Invests in Italian Humanoid Robotics Startup Generative Bionics
Tether has participated in a €70 million (US$81 million) funding round for Generative Bionics, an Italian humanoid robotics startup. The round was led by the AI Fund of CDP Venture Capital, with other participants including AMD Ventures, Duferco, Eni Next, and RoboIT.
Generative Bionics, which spun out of the Italian Institute of Technology in 2024, employed about 70 IIT engineers. The company plans to conduct industrial testing and open its first production facility ahead of deployments targeted for 2026.
Generative Bionics will debut its first complete humanoid robot at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. It describes its machines as Physical AI, which fuse humanoid robotics with artificial intelligence.
Tether states that the investment aligns with its broader strategy to fund technologies that strengthen global digital and physical infrastructure and expand human potential. Its broader investments include AI, media, agriculture, and brain-computer interface technologies.
The humanoid robotics sector has drawn significant investment in 2025, with Figure AI raising $675 million and Bedrock Robotics raising $80 million. Additionally, Roundhill Investments filed for a humanoid robotics ETF. Morgan Stanley projects the market for humanoid robotics could reach $5 trillion by 2050.
