Summary
- The world's largest stablecoin issuer, Tether, reportedly participated in an $81 million investment round of Italian AI robot startup Generative Bionics.
- Tether said it is taking a strategic step to expand its portfolio across technologies and industries, and is also expanding into four core areas: finance, power, data, and education.
- Through this investment, Tether explained it will accelerate the validation and establishment of production facilities for physical AI systems and the humanoid industrial platform.
Participation in $81 million investment round
"Expanding portfolio beyond coins"
Tether, the world's largest stablecoin issuer, participated in the $81 million investment round conducted by Italian AI robot startup Generative Bionics. It is interpreted as a strategic move to expand its portfolio across technologies and industries, moving away from a single stablecoin business structure.
According to multiple foreign media on the 10th (local time), participants in this investment round included Tether and AMD Ventures, among others. Generative Bionics is an AI robot startup spun out of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in 2023. It is developing high-performance humanoids (human-like robots) that can be deployed immediately in industrial settings such as manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and retail. It is currently finalizing its first commercial supply contract and plans to unveil a fully operational humanoid on the international stage for the first time at CES, the world's largest IT and consumer electronics exhibition, held in Las Vegas in January next year.
Tether is strengthening its technology investment activities based on its cryptocurrency reserves. Analysts say that a stablecoin company entering the humanoid robot sector reflects the company's expectations for market growth. In a statement on the 10th, Tether said this is part of a strategy to expand its portfolio into four core areas: finance, power, data, and education. It means evolving beyond a simple stablecoin issuer into a physical technology infrastructure company. Previously, Tether invested about €1 billion in German AI robot startup Nura Robotics. It is also expanding into brain-computer interface (BCI) companies and GPU infrastructure for data centers.
Tether said that through this investment it will "accelerate the development of physical AI systems and edge AI solutions, and support industrial validation of the humanoid platform and establishment of production facilities."
Reporter Young Choi youngchoi@hankyung.com
Korea Economic Daily
hankyung@bloomingbit.ioThe Korea Economic Daily Global is a digital media where latest news on Korean companies, industries, and financial markets.
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