Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang positioned the adoption of humanoid robots in industry as opening a multitrillion-dollar economic opportunity, as it announced a model for academics using hardware from Unitree and Sharpa intended to accelerate advances.

In an announcement made at Computex 2026 in Taipei, Taiwan, the executive backed humanoid robotics to “bring physical AI to the world’s largest industries” but indicated there were barriers to academic work to this end, which it aims to resolve by introduction of the “reference robot”.

The machine uses Nvidia compute systems and Isaac GR00T development platform, a Unitree H2 body standing at almost 6 feet tall and weighing 50 pounds in weight, and Sharpa Wave tactile five-finger hands.

“Nvidia Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid Robot gives researchers a single, open platform to make breakthrough discoveries toward general-purpose physical intelligence,” Huang added.

During his keynote at the event Huang explained “we built this for higher education and university researchers, because for them to build this is insanely hard to do”, pointing to the complexities and expense of starting from scratch in every project.

Nvidia noted by using its “compute and open software stack” at the core “the reference design gives research teams a more unified, secure foundation for advancing humanoid robotics”.

Discussing Sharpa’s role founder David Li said “partnering with Nvidia on a humanoid robot reference design and end-to-end development solution is a meaningful step toward deploying robots that can perform real work, in real settings”.

The executive added its “vision is to make robots genuinely productive – by advancing fine manipulation skills through dexterous, tactile hardware and the AI models that power them”.

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UAE operator e& struck a deal with Uber to sell 12.5% of its stake in digital platform provider Careem Technologies for $100 million, leaving it with a 37.5% shareholding which the taxi app giant has an option to acquire the rest of.

Careem Technologies builds and operates its namesake app and related services. The app is used for various consumer services including food and grocery delivery, payment and other lifestyle services.   

The deal is subject to regulatory approval and includes options which can be exercised by either side for Uber to buy e& out of Careem completely. The options can be activated between December 2031 or January 2032.

In a stock market statement, e& noted from the deal Careem would benefit from Uber’s experience and synergies with its global platforms.

For e& the sale reflects an “increased strategic focus on its core businesses and disciplined capital allocation priorities”, while allowing it to maintaining some exposure to the app business.

Uber already owns the other 50% of Careem Technologies and the entirety of the ride sharing business it was originally spun-off from.

Careem Technologies was separated from the taxi business in 2023, with e& taking a 50.03 per cent stake in that business in exchange for an investment of $400 million in it.

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