One signal

XDOF is in late-stage talks for a Series B led by 8VC at a valuation of about $1.2 billion, TechCrunch reports, less than three months after the robotics-data startup emerged from stealth. The sum being raised is unknown, terms could still change, and neither company commented.

Why it matters

The eye-catching bit is the reported demand beneath that valuation: annualised revenue approaching $50 million from supplying teleoperation and annotated real-world data for robot training. If accurate, investors are betting that robotics’ scarce raw material is not another clever model, but enough humans folding shirts for machines to learn how.

Discuss: Will proprietary real-world training data become the strongest moat in general-purpose robotics?

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