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Nasdaq seeks to extend trading hours, as Wall Street gears up for 24/7 move

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) – Nasdaq, one of the world’s largest exchanges that is home to tech companies Nvidia, and Amazon, is planning to submit paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday to roll out round-the-clock trading of stocks, as it looks to capitalize on a global demand for U.S. equities.

Investor demand for nonstop trading in U.S. stocks has surged in recent years, prompting regulators to introduce new rules and green-light proposals from major exchanges to enable trading beyond normal market hours. The U.S. represents almost two-thirds of the market value of listed companies globally, while total foreign holdings of U.S. equities reached $17 trillion last year, according to data compiled by Nasdaq.

Nasdaq’s filing with the SEC will mark its first formal step towards rolling out round-the-clock trading, five days a week. In March, Nasdaq President Tal Cohen said the exchange operator had started discussions with regulators and expected to launch nonstop five-day-a-week trading in the second half of 2026. The New York Stock Exchange and Cboe Global Markets also recently announced plans to move to round-the-clock trading for stocks.

“There’s been this trend towards globalization for some time and we’ve seen the U.S. markets themselves become much more global,” Chuck Mack, senior vice president of North American markets at Nasdaq, told Reuters.

TWO DAILY TRADING SESSIONS

Nasdaq plans to expand trading hours of stocks and exchange-traded products from 16 hours to 23 hours, five days a week. Currently, Nasdaq operates three daily sessions during weekdays: the pre-market session from 4 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. Eastern U.S. time, the regular market session from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the post-market session from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. When Nasdaq moves to 23/5, it plans to operate two trading sessions, with the day session starting at 4 a.m. and ending at 8 p.m., followed by a one-hour break for maintenance, testing, and clearing of trades. The night session will kick off at 9 p.m. and end at 4 a.m. the following calendar day.

The day session will continue to include pre-market, regular, and post-market trading hours, and will feature the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. and the bell at 4 p.m. In the night session, trades executed between 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. will be considered trades for the following day.

Under the new plan, the trading week will start on Sunday at 9 p.m. and end on Friday at 8 p.m. after the day session.

The successful rollout of round-the-clock trading hinges on upgrades to the securities information processor that displays the most accurate stock quotes on U.S. exchanges. The central clearing hub, the U.S. Depository Trust and Clearing Corp., is scheduled to roll out nonstop clearing for stocks by the end of 2026.

Advocates of the broader move to round-the-clock trading have argued it will allow investors, especially those based outside the U.S., to react more quickly to developments that happen outside regular market hours. Major Wall Street banks, however, are cautious about the push toward nonstop trading, citing concerns around lower liquidity, heightened volatility, and uncertainty over returns on investment.

‘OWN TERMS, OWN TIME ZONES’

While volumes during extended hours are usually much lower than during regular hours, demand has been booming for trading during overnight U.S. hours, Mack said. Investors who want to trade 24/7 currently rely on off-exchange trading venues, or alternative trading systems, such as Blue Ocean, Bruce ATS, and OTC Moon.

“We see these things manifest themselves in the U.S. equities market, through increasing demand for companies specifically listed on Nasdaq from geographies outside of the U.S., much more now than in the past,” Mack said. “If you think of those investors around the world, they want to access this huge market on their own terms and they want to do it in their own time zones.”

Trading hours on large stock exchanges such as the NYSE date back more than a century, to when trades were placed in person on trading floors by brokers who took orders on paper. While most stock trading is now done electronically, trading hours on most U.S. exchanges have largely remained the same over the decades.

Earlier this year, Nasdaq filed with U.S. regulators to introduce trading of tokenized stocks, as it sought to double down on a boom in tokenization amid an easing of crypto regulations under the Trump administration.

“When there’s market stress and volatility, the traffic in the market and the activity levels pick up significantly. We have built systems that are extremely resilient, have a lot of throughput, and have the ability to handle those types of situations,” Mack said.

(Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Megan Davies and Rod Nickel)

 

Leidos names AI chief technology officer

Reston-based Fortune 500 has named Theodore “Ted” Tanner Jr. its next , according to a Monday announcement.

Previously, Tanner worked as chief technology and strategy officer at , an provider for defense, national security and critical infrastructure headquartered in McLean.

“Ted is a high-impact leader who pairs entrepreneurial creativity with execution discipline to solve tough deep-technology challenges,” Tom Bell, Leidos CEO, said in a news release.

Tanner will assume the role Jan. 5, 2026. He succeeds Jim Carlini, Leidos’ since 2019. Carlini will remain a senior adviser to Bell on national security matters.

At BigBear.ai, Tanner led the development of AI and machine learning capabilities for the U.S. Department of Defense, which is also referred to as the Department of War, as well as for intelligence and civilian agencies. Previously, Tanner worked at , and IBM Watson Health. He also co-founded startups PokitDok, a platform-as-a-service company for health care, and Belief Networks, a machine learning and natural language processing as-a-service company.

Currently, Tanner sits on the scientific advisor board of QuiverBioscience, a Massachusetts-based company that uses technology to develop medicines for the brain. He holds 18 U.S. patents in artificial intelligence, machine learning and other technologies.

Earlier this year, Leidos unveiled its NorthStar 2030 growth strategy, which is designed to differentiate the company in the space and maritime industries, digital modernization and full-spectrum cyber, managed health services, mission software and energy infrastructure. “To a large extent, the progress in those areas, and others, is fueled by driving outcomes through proven AI,” the company stated in Monday’s news release.

With 47,000 employees worldwide, Leidos reported $16.7 billion in revenue for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 3.

Sen. Cruz threatens another shutdown unless restrictions on military flights are approved

WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz threatened Monday to hold up funding to keep the federal government open after the end of January if reforms don’t pass by then to tighten up the rules on military flights and help prevent deadly crashes like the collision between an airliner and an Army helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67.

Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell held a news conference Monday with some of the victims’ families to urge Congress to strip provisions from a massive defense bill that would allow military aircraft to get a waiver to return to operating without broadcasting their precise location, just as they were before the Jan. 29 crash.

It’s not clear if Republican leadership will allow the defense bill to be amended because that would send the bill back to the House and could delay raises for soldiers and other key provisions. But if the defense bill passes as written now, Cruz said, he will hold up government funding until the bill he introduced last summer is passed to fix the problem.

Cruz said the defense bill provision “was airdropped in at at the last moment,” noting it would unwind actions taken by President and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make the airspace around D.C. safer.

“The special carve-out was exactly what caused the January 29th crash that claimed 67 lives,” Cruz said.

Before the crash, military helicopters routinely flew through the crowded airspace around the nation’s capital without using a key system called ADS-B to broadcast their locations. The Federal Aviation Administration began requiring all aircraft to do that in March.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, senators, airlines and key transportation unions all sharply criticized the new helicopter safety provisions in the defense bill last week when they came to light.

Cruz and Cantwell said they only became aware that the sprawling military bill would have that language after it was finalized by congressional leaders last week. They began strenuously objecting as soon as they realized it contained the exemptions.

The families of the crash victims said this bill would weaken safeguards and send aviation safety backwards.

“Our families know the consequences of systemic failures, and we cannot accept a policy change that makes our skies less safe,” the families said in a statement.

The NTSB won’t release its final report on the cause of the crash until sometime next year, but investigators have already raised a number of key concerns about the 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the crash and the helicopter route that allowed Black Hawks to fly dangerously close to planes landing at the airport’s secondary runway.

The bill Cruz and Cantwell proposed to require all aircraft to broadcast their locations has broad support from the , the FAA, NTSB and the victims’ families.

AeroFarms to close Pittsylvania operations; 173 to lose jobs

SUMMARY: 

  • plans to end operations at its Ringgold farm Friday.
  • 173 workers will lose their jobs.
  • The company cited an investor unexpectedly withdrawing future funding as cause of closure.

In April 2023, AeroFarms, a vertical farming operation, transferred its New Jersey commercial production to its commercial farm at Cane Creek Centre, a joint industrial park for the city of and , in Ringgold. A few months later, AeroFarms filed for voluntary protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code; however, the company pledged to keep up its efforts in Southern Virginia.

“We are fortunate to have existing investors who continue to believe in AeroFarms and are confident that we can hit our targeted profitable operations for our Danville farm,” Guy Blanchard, who was then president and chief financial officer of AeroFarms, stated in a June 2023 news release.

Putting all their eggs in the Danville-area basket, however, doesn’t seem to have worked out. In a letter to the to the state’s Department of Workforce Development and Advancement, aka Virginia Works, dated Dec. 11, Carlos Nunez, vice president of human resources for AeroFarms, explained that New AeroFarms, an entity formed in Virginia in 2023 connected to a address, and AeroFarms Danville Farming Co., an entity formed in 2024 in Virginia connected to the same address, plans to end operations Friday at the Ringgold facility. The letter states 173 employees will lose their jobs. Of those, 127 workers live in Virginia.

“Recently, we were informed that, contrary to the companies’ expectations, the companies’ largest investor decided to withdraw any further financial investment  … due in whole or in part to the investor’s unannounced restructuring and change in priorities,” Nunez stated in the letter.

AeroFarms attempted to negotiate an extension with the investor or secure other funding, but those efforts failed, according to the notification.

AeroFarms wasn’t able to provide 60 days notice to employees before the mass layoff as typically required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act because doing that could have kept the company from obtaining funding from other sources, Nunez stated.

“They have come to the conclusion that they cannot continue operations until they are able to obtain new funding from other sources,” the letter noted.

The are expected to be permanent. The workers do not belong to a union and do not have bumping rights, Nunez stated.

AeroFarms did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

Nunez appears to be among the 173 who will lose their jobs, according to a list included with the letter sent to Virginia Works. His LinkedIn page states he only started work at AeroFarms in June. The company’s CEO and chief financial officer are also losing their jobs. The majority of the laid-off workers were process operators and technicians.

Although AeroFarms had been headquartered in New Jersey since 2015, Danville has been the company’s official headquarters since September 2023, a spokesperson for the company told Virginia Business in March. 

“This came really out of the blue,” Ken Larking, Danville’s city manager, said Monday afternoon. “We’re doing what we can to support people. It’s extremely disappointing. The employees had very little notice. I don’t know what [AeroFarms’] plans are to support employees or not support employees.”

Refinancing debt

On Aug. 7, AeroFarms announced it had refinanced its debt to support ongoing operations at its farm at the Cane Creek Centre and had raised equity financing to support existing operations and fund pre-construction activities for its expansion to a second farm.

Equity was provided by existing investors including Grosvenor Food & AgTech, a London-based investor in food and agriculture companies; Ingka Investments, a South Holland-based investor; and Cibus Capital, a London-based investment adviser in sustainable food and agriculture, according to the news release.

Siguler Guff, a New York-based private markets investment firm, provided AeroFarms with an asset-based loan to pay off previous debt facility from Horizon Technology Finance, a Connecticut-based venture lending platform, according to the news release.

“We are excited to partner with AeroFarms in Danville, Virginia, to help them reach their full operational capacity,” Matthew Bernstein, managing director in Siguler Guff’s credit and special situations strategy, said in a statement.

The vertical indoor farming business isn’t currently flourishing.

Plenty Unlimited, a vertical indoor farming company based in California, opened a berry farm in Richmond in 2024. It’s designed to produce more than 4 million pounds of strawberries annually in less than 40,000 square feet by growing the fruit vertically on 30-foot towers.

The company filed for bankruptcy in March. However, by May, Plenty announced it had successfully emerged from Chapter 11, after the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas confirmed its reorganization plan.

During a groundbreaking ceremony for the Pittsylvania County farm in 2021, AeroFarms said the facility would operate with agSTACK technology, which creates a connected and digitally controlled farm that yields annual productivity up to 390 times greater than traditional farming in a field, while also using 95% less water and zero pesticides.

In October, AeroFarms announced that its microgreens were available in about 2,500 stores nationwide, including at 750 stores added in 2025. A July announcement celebrated that the company’s Micro Broccoli, Rainbow Mix, Micro Kale and Super Mix could now be found inside Harris Teeter stores chainwide.

A May article in Fast Company noted that AeroFarms had been profitable for two recent quarters, even while other vertical farming companies struggled.

“The basic business model — growing crops like leafy greens indoors on tall vertical towers — hasn’t proven that it can work. But AeroFarms… has managed to turn itself around,” the article stated.

Editor’s note: Kate Andrews contributed to this article.

Alexandria approves 600+ housing units in Potomac Yard

SUMMARY:

‘s City Council unanimously approved special use permits for Maryland-based to develop 640 units in Potomac Yard at a Saturday meeting.

Located near the Potomac Yard Metro station, which opened in 2023, the project includes a mix of affordable and market-rate residences with rental apartments and for-sale townhomes, as well as 30,000 square feet of open space and 13,000 square feet of retail space. JBG Smith’s project will be built on the last remaining building parcels in the southern portion of Potomac Yard.

“I first started representing Potomac Yard in 2004 when it was a vacant piece of land, and I hope you all will mark today as the completion of that vision,” Cathy Puskar, a land use and zoning attorney with Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh who represents the project’s developers, said during the meeting. “I am really happy to be here today to have a proposal that has a diversity of housing types in for-sale townhouses, multifamily rental and, more particularly, an affordable housing building right next to Metro, in a transit-rich environment with retail.”

Until 1982, Potomac Yard operated as a rail classification yard. Since then, the property has been redeveloped. Now anchored in part by Virginia Tech’s Academic Building One, which opened in January, Potomac Yard is close to Amazon’s HQ2 and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The project approved Saturday is located near where the failed Potomac Yard sports arena would have been built.

JBG Smith, an owner, operator and developer of mixed-use properties in the Washington, D.C., region, will develop 432 residential units — 480,533 square feet — of market-rate apartments in a seven-story building.

Additionally, Alexandria-based nonprofit Wesley Housing, which develops, owns and operates affordable housing, will deliver 88 units of affordable housing in two-and three-bedroom units, in a six-story building on land donated by JBG Smith. The building requires no city funding.

Finally, Pennsylvania-based Toll Brothers, a builder of luxury homes, will construct 120 single-family townhomes as part of the project.

A spokesperson for the developers declined to provide the cost of the development and said JBG Smith will provide details about a timeline closer to the start of construction.

“This mixed-use development is designed to bring much-needed rental, affordable, and family-friendly for-sale housing to the neighborhood, culminating a quarter century of development in the southern portion of Potomac Yard,” Taylor Lawch, co-head of development at JBG Smith, said in a news release.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated. 

Trump’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee draws legal challenge from US states

Summary

  • California and 18 states challenge Trump’s $100K H-1B visa fee in .
  • Lawsuit argues the fee exceeds presidential authority and violates federal law.
  • Tech, education and healthcare sectors warn of higher costs and worker shortages.
  • Business groups and unions have also filed lawsuits over the visa fee.

Dec 12 (Reuters) – California and 18 other U.S. states will file a lawsuit on Friday seeking to block President ‘s $100,000 fee on new for highly skilled , California Attorney General ‘s office said.

The lawsuit in Massachusetts federal court will be at least the third to challenge the fee announced by Trump in September, which dramatically raises the cost of obtaining H-1B visas. Currently, employers typically pay between $2,000 and $5,000 in fees.

Bonta’s office in a release said Trump lacks the power to impose the fee and that it violates federal law, which allows immigration authorities to collect only fees necessary to cover the cost of administering visa programs.

The H-1B program allows U.S. employers to hire foreign workers in specialty fields. The , with many companies headquartered in California, is particularly reliant on workers who receive the visas.

Bonta, a Democrat, said the $100,000 fee would create unnecessary financial burdens for providers of vital services such as education and healthcare, exacerbating labor shortages and threatening to cut services.

The states joining California in the lawsuit include New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, New Jersey and Washington.

The in response to other lawsuits has said the new fee is a lawful exercise of Trump’s powers and will discourage employers from abusing the H-1B program.

Critics of H-1B visas and other work visas say they are often used to replace American workers with foreign employees who will work for less. But business groups and major companies have maintained that workers on H-1B visas are a critical means to address a shortage of qualified American workers.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the country’s largest business lobby, and a coalition of unions, employers and religious groups have filed separate lawsuits challenging the fee. A judge in Washington, D.C., is set to hold a hearing in the Chamber’s lawsuit next week.

Trump’s order bars new H-1B recipients from entering the United States unless the employer sponsoring their visa has made the $100,000 payment. The administration has said the order does not apply to existing H-1B holders or those who applied before September 21.

Trump in the order invoked his power under federal immigration law to restrict the entry of certain foreign nationals that would be detrimental to U.S. interests.

Bonta’s office on Friday said the $100,000 fee far exceeds the cost of processing H-1B petitions, rendering it unlawful. It added the U.S. Constitution bars Trump from unilaterally imposing fees to generate revenue for the United States, a job that is reserved for Congress.

Investors eager for delayed data to shed light on US economy

Summary

  • Delayed jobs and reports to offer crucial insight after shutdown.
  • retreats from record as AI stock disappointments weigh.
  • Fed cut rates again but signaled caution amid weak labor trends.
  • Investors brace for volatility as year-end profit-taking looms.

NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters) – A host of delayed employment, and other data in the coming week will give a long-anticipated view of the that could help guide markets into year-end.

U.S. stocks pulled back to end the week, after the benchmark S&P 500 had ended on Thursday at a record high. Back-to-back disappointing quarterly reports from Oracle and Broadcom, two signature stocks in the trade that has propelled markets this year, weighed down the heavyweight technology sector.

The upcoming data is especially critical because investors and the have been navigating with little certainty since a 43-day federal government shutdown postponed key reports.

The U.S. for November is due on Tuesday, while the monthly consumer price index, which is closely watched for inflation trends, is out on Thursday.

“There has been a lack of clarity for investors,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer with Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “Strong corporate earnings certainly helped to support the markets. The Fed and anticipated rate cuts helped to provide a little bit of a boost. But now it’s time to turn our attention back to the underlying economy and what path we’re on.”

A divided Fed cut by a quarter percentage point on Wednesday for a third-straight meeting as it seeks to shore up a weakening labor market. But the central bank signaled borrowing costs are unlikely to drop further in the near term as it awaits more economic clarity.

“Because of the government shutdown and the catch-up schedule, we have essentially three months of both labor and inflation data coming out between the December and January Fed meetings,” said David Seif, chief economist for developed markets at Nomura.

U.S. payrolls are expected to have climbed by a tepid 35,000 in November, according to a Reuters poll. Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday said while payrolls have been averaging an increase of 40,000 per month since April, the Fed thinks those numbers are overstated and could instead be an average loss of 20,000 per month.

“If we start getting negative prints around jobs, you can’t avoid the recession discussion,” said Marvin Loh, senior global macro strategist at State Street.

The monthly CPI data comes as inflation has continued to run above the Fed’s target, which could complicate any further Fed easing if inflation does not cool. Three policymakers dissented from the decision to lower rates, including two who argued rates should have been left unchanged.

“We continue to expect further cuts in January and April, but if the labor market stabilizes, then future cuts may not come until inflation decelerates,” Morgan Stanley economists said in a note on Thursday.

A report on retail sales is among the other releases next week that will help provide more insight into economic growth. Micron Technology’s quarterly report on Wednesday also could draw added scrutiny following the AI turbulence this week.

The S&P 500 is up 16% so far in 2025, pushing its gain during the bull market that began in October 2022 to 90%. December is traditionally a positive month for stocks.

However, investors could seek to lock in year-to-date profits, bringing selling pressure. The approaching holidays also stand to reduce trading volumes, which can lead to exaggerated asset-price moves.

“For the most part, it’s been a very, very good year for risk assets,” Loh said. “If you get some shaky numbers or you don’t get a resounding reason to add risk, it could add volatility in the market just because of the thinner markets.”

 

 

Trump Launches $1M ‘Gold Card’ Offering Path to Citizenship

Summary

  • Trump launches “gold card,” offering permanent residency for $1M.
  • Program replaces EB-5 visas and targets skilled .
  • Corporations can buy cards for $2M per employee, with no job-creation rules noted.
  • Trump predicts billions in revenue; critics cite contradictions.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in  has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.

Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry.

Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm.”

“The question is really just how long it will take,” he said.

Disney’s contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human — or a snowman — are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away.

Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that’s a temple to Silicon Valley’s previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon.

“The humanoid space has a very, very big hill to climb,” said Cosima du Pasquier, founder and CEO of Haptica Robotics, which works to give robots a sense of touch. “There’s a lot of research that still needs to be solved.”

The Stanford University postdoctoral researcher came to the conference in Mountain View, California, just a week after incorporating her startup.

“The first customers are really the people here,” she said.

Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America.

China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate last year “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinse firms dominated the expo section of this week’s summit, held Thursday and Friday. The conference’s most prevalent humanoids were those made by China’s Unitree, in part because researchers in the U.S. buy the relatively cheap model to test their own software.

In the U.S., the advent of generative AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini has jolted the decades-old in different ways. Investor excitement has poured money into ambitious startups aiming to build hardware that will bring a physical presence to the latest AI.

But it’s not just crossover hype — the same technical advances that made AI chatbots so good at language have played a role in teaching robots how to get better at performing tasks. Paired with computer vision, robots powered by “visual-language” models are trained to learn about their surroundings.

One of the most prominent skeptics is robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks, a co-founder of Roomba vacuum maker iRobot who wrote in September that “today’s will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training.” Brooks didn’t attend but his essay was frequently mentioned.

Also missing was anyone speaking for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s development of a humanoid called Optimus, a project that the billionaire is designing to be “extremely capable” and sold in high volumes. Musk said three years ago that people can probably buy an Optimus “within three to five years.”

The conference’s organizer, Alaoui, founder and general partner of ALM Ventures, previously worked on driver attention systems for the automotive industry and sees parallels between humanoids and the early years of self-driving cars.

Near the entrance to the summit venue, just blocks from Google’s headquarters, is a museum exhibit showing Google’s bubble-shaped 2014 prototype of a self-driving car. Eleven years later, robotaxis operated by Google affiliate Waymo are constantly plying the streets nearby.

Some robots with human elements are already being tested in workplaces. Oregon-based Agility Robotics announced shortly before the conference that it is bringing its tote-carrying warehouse robot Digit to a Texas distribution facility run by Mercado Libre, the Latin American e-commerce giant. Much like the Olaf robot, it has inverted legs that are more birdlike than human.

Industrial robots performing single tasks are already commonplace in car assembly and other manufacturing. They work with a level of speed and precision that’s difficult for today’s humanoids — or humans themselves — to match.

The head of a robotics trade group founded in 1974 is now lobbying the U.S. government to develop a stronger national strategy to advance the development of homegrown robots, be they humanoids or otherwise.

“We have a lot of strong technology, we have the AI expertise here in the U.S.,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing , after touring the expo. “So I think it remains to be seen who is the ultimate leader in this. But right now, China has certainly a lot more momentum on humanoids.”

AI boom fuels new push for humanoid robots, despite doubts

Summary

  • AI advances and investor enthusiasm revive efforts to build .
  • More than 2,000 attendees join the Humanoids Summit in California.
  • China leads global development with major incentives and rapid scaling.
  • Skeptics warn humanlike robots face steep technical and commercial hurdles.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for investors — too complicated, capital-intensive and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in  has lit a spark under long-simmering visions to build humanoid robots that can move their mechanical bodies like humans and do things that people do.

Alaoui, founder of the Humanoids Summit, gathered more than 2,000 people this week, including top robotics engineers from Disney, Google and dozens of startups, to showcase their technology and debate what it will take to accelerate a nascent industry.

Alaoui says many researchers now believe humanoids or some other kind of physical embodiment of AI are “going to become the norm.”

“The question is really just how long it will take,” he said.

Disney’s contribution to the field, a walking robotic version of “Frozen” character Olaf, will be roaming on its own through Disneyland theme parks in Hong Kong and Paris early next year. Entertaining and highly complex robots that resemble a human — or a snowman — are already here, but the timeline for “general purpose” robots that are a productive member of a workplace or household is farther away.

Even at a conference designed to build enthusiasm for the technology, held at a Computer History Museum that’s a temple to Silicon Valley’s previous breakthroughs, skepticism remained high that truly humanlike robots will take root anytime soon.

“The humanoid space has a very, very big hill to climb,” said Cosima du Pasquier, co-founder of Haptica Robotics, which works to give robots a sense of touch. “There’s a lot of research that still needs to be solved.”

The Stanford University postdoctoral researcher came to the conference in Mountain View, California, just a week after incorporating her startup.

“The first customers are really the people here,” she said.

Researchers at the consultancy McKinsey & Company have counted about 50 companies around the world that have raised at least $100 million to develop humanoids, led by about 20 in China and 15 in North America.

China is leading in part due to government incentives for component production and robot adoption and a mandate last year “to have a humanoid ecosystem established by 2025,” said McKinsey partner Ani Kelkar. Displays by Chinse firms dominated the expo section of this week’s summit, held Thursday and Friday. The conference’s most prevalent humanoids were those made by China’s Unitree, in part because researchers in the U.S. buy the relatively cheap model to test their own software.

In the U.S., the advent of generative AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini has jolted the decades-old in different ways. Investor excitement has poured money into ambitious startups aiming to build hardware that will bring a physical presence to the latest AI.

But it’s not just crossover hype — the same technical advances that made AI chatbots so good at language have played a role in teaching robots how to get better at performing tasks. Paired with computer vision, robots powered by “visual-language” models are trained to learn about their surroundings.

One of the most prominent skeptics is robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks, a co-founder of Roomba vacuum maker iRobot who wrote in September that “today’s humanoid robots will not learn how to be dexterous despite the hundreds of millions, or perhaps many billions of dollars, being donated by VCs and major tech companies to pay for their training.” Brooks didn’t attend but his essay was frequently mentioned.

Also missing was anyone speaking for Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s development of a humanoid called Optimus, a project that the billionaire is designing to be “extremely capable” and sold in high volumes. Musk said three years ago that people can probably buy an Optimus “within three to five years.”

The conference’s organizer, Alaoui, founder and general partner of ALM Ventures, previously worked on driver attention systems for the automotive industry and sees parallels between humanoids and the early years of self-driving cars.

Near the entrance to the summit venue, just blocks from Google’s headquarters, is a museum exhibit showing Google’s bubble-shaped 2014 prototype of a self-driving car. Eleven years later, robotaxis operated by Google affiliate Waymo are constantly plying the streets nearby.

Some robots with human elements are already being tested in workplaces. Oregon-based Agility Robotics announced shortly before the conference that it is bringing its tote-carrying warehouse robot Digit to a Texas distribution facility run by Mercado Libre, the Latin American e-commerce giant. Much like the Olaf robot, it has inverted legs that are more birdlike than human.

Industrial robots performing single tasks are already commonplace in car assembly and other manufacturing. They work with a level of speed and precision that’s difficult for today’s humanoids — or humans themselves — to match.

The head of a robotics trade group founded in 1974 is now lobbying the U.S. government to develop a stronger national strategy to advance the development of homegrown robots, be they humanoids or otherwise.

“We have a lot of strong technology, we have the AI expertise here in the U.S.,” said Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing , after touring the expo. “So I think it remains to be seen who is the ultimate leader in this. But right now, China has certainly a lot more momentum on humanoids.”

Virginia sees home sales decline across major markets

SUMMARY:

  • Home inventory rose year-over-year in and
  • Homes sales dropped in both regions
  • Northern Virginia’s total sales volume was $969,577,300, a 1.6% decrease from last year

inventories climbed across Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia in November, but fewer deals closed as home sales declined across the two regions.

Northern Virginia

The reports that 1,091 units were sold in November, a 6.6% decrease from November 2024. Total sales volume was $969,577,300, a 1.6% decrease from last year, which the association says reflects a shift toward mid-priced transactions as buyers adjusted to . Pending sales increased 0.7% year-over-year to 1,091.

“Northern Virginia is experiencing a meaningful rebalancing,” NVAR CEO said in a statement. “The market remains competitive, but rising inventory and longer market times are giving consumers more room to consider their choices. That change supports healthier, more sustainable transactions than the highly accelerated pace we saw in recent years.”

NVAR said the median sold price climbed to $740,000, up 5.7% from last year, which it says underscores “continued desirability of Northern Virginia’s communities.”

Months of supply of inventory (MSI) in November — a measure of how many months homes would remain on the market if no new inventory were added — was 1.48, up 41.2% compared with November 2024.

Active listings jumped 45.1% year-over-year, with 2,042 listings in November.

Homes took longer to sell in November, with an average 29 days on the market — up 31.8% from November 2024. The association said the return to a more normal sales cadence “signals a balancing environment after several years of ultra-fast turnover.

NVAR reports home sales activity for Fairfax and Arlington counties, the cities of , Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Vienna, Herndon and Clifton.

Hampton Roads

According to the (REIN), Hampton Roads saw active listings increase year-over-year but pending and settled sales both declined in November.

Hampton Roads saw 1,774 sales in November, down from 2,099 in October and down 6.6% from 1,889 in November 2024. Active residential listings declined to 5,179 from 5,571 in October, but were up 13.5% year-over-year from 4,565 in November 2024.

MSI for November in Hampton Roads was 2.51, down from 2.68 in October, but up year-over-year from 2.23 in November 2024.

“Inventory across Hampton Roads remains higher than it was at this time last year, giving buyers a wider selection of homes than they had in November 2024,” said with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices RW Towne Realty and president of REIN’s board in a statement. “Month-to-month changes reflect the typical seasonal patterns we expect as the market moves into the winter months.”

The median sale price for November was $367,000, up from $362,000 in October and up 4.9% from $350,000 in November 2024.

November’s pending sales for the month stood at 1,849, down from 2,162 in October, but up 9.2% from 1,693 in November 2024.

Hampton Roads homes spent a median of 31 days on the market compared to 30 in October and 27 in November 2024.

Founded in 1969, REIN is a regional multiple listing service that covers an area stretching from Williamsburg east to Virginia Beach and south across the North Carolina border.