NEURA Robotics Physical AI is heading to IFA 2026, and I have one demo request for the 4NE1

I’ve watched Physical AI get pitched from conference stages all year (not just by chip companies with plenty to sell). NEURA Robotics is having a go at IFA in Berlin, in front of an audience that wants to know whether a robot can fold a shirt without dropping it. The German company is bringing its cognitive robots to the show floor and putting its founder on the Innovation Stage to argue that Europe can build the ecosystem underneath them.

NEURA has plenty to prove at IFA. It has a huge funding round, a growing robot lineup, and ambitions that stretch from factories to living rooms. The interesting part will be seeing whether the robots can keep their act together once the crowds arrive. IFA is no “We, Robot” event, either. Teleoperation won’t be much help here, looking at you, Optimus.

A European pitch: Reger takes the Innovation Stage

David Reger, NEURA’s founder and CEO, speaks on 5 September at 2:30 PM on the Innovation Stage. His talk is titled “From Europe, for the World: Building the Ecosystem for Physical AI,” and the framing tells you what the company wants from Berlin. I’m no fan of corporate speak, so in simple terms, Reger argues that European engineering, industrial manufacturing, and AI expertise should be pulled into one shared ecosystem and scaled worldwide.

Leif Lindner, who runs IFA Management, calls NEURA a pivotal player in the category. Fair enough. That is the sort of welcome any exhibitor would want. I’m more interested in hearing Reger explain where the actuators come from. How much of that supply chain can Europe replace tomorrow, and how much would take years of subsidies?

Sovereignty talk is easy. Show me the bill of materials.

The money showed up before the robots did

NEURA closed a Series C worth up to $1.4 billion in June, and the company calls it the largest round to date for a full-stack robotics business. Tether, Qualcomm, Amazon, and Nvidia joined, alongside Bosch, Schaeffler, and the European Investment Bank. A person familiar with the deal put the valuation near $7 billion.

The €1.3 billion figure comes with a catch. NEURA has to hit internal performance targets to get all of it. That makes sense to me. Investors are putting serious money into a part of robotics that still generates very little revenue.

It’s worth looking at where NEURA was in January 2026. The company raised €120 million then, with Exor’s Lingotto Investment Management leading alongside Volvo Cars Tech Fund. Reger said last year that almost $1 billion in orders was already on the books, including work with Kawasaki Heavy Industries and OMRON (by the way, the latter started out selling trouser presses before growing into a global technology company).

The wider robotics market has also caught fire. Dealroom puts funding at $55.8 billion so far in 2026, almost twice the previous record.

What 4NE1 has to prove in Berlin

At CES in January, NEURA unveiled the next-generation 4NE1 humanoid, a smaller 4NE1 Mini, and a quadruped, with the flagship humanoid styled in collaboration with Studio F.A. Porsche. The company also walked attendees through the Neuraverse, an operating system meant to link robots, tools, and smart devices into one learning network so a skill picked up by one machine spreads to the rest.

Shared learning is the part I care about most, because it’s the only credible answer to how a robot handles a room it’s never seen. A humanoid at NEURA’s IFA booth last year was photographed working through a pile of laundry. Give me the same demo with a shirt somebody in the audience brought from home, and I’ll start believing the network claim.

Runways, RoboCup, and the shoelace problem

IFA has scheduled Robots on the Runway for 5 September at 1:00 PM on the Creator Stage, with humanoids from Unitree, Agibot, DEEP Robotics, EngineAI, Dobot, and others walking a catwalk. RoboCup runs across all five days, with Humboldt-Universität’s Berlin United team playing soccer against other machines. Both are fun. Neither tells me much.

Robots have gotten pretty good at choreography. The harder part is what happens at their fingertips, where soft materials meet and move in unpredictable ways. That’s why a robot can nail a backflip on stage but still struggle with a shoelace or a pile of wooden blocks. The backflip follows a motion the machine can control. A shoelace doesn’t.

That’s why I’d rather spend time at NEURA’s booth than watch another robot on a runway. A choreographed routine is easy to make look good. Most homes aren’t. Someone leaves a bag on the floor. There are dishes on the counter. A kid gets in the way. The robot has to deal with whatever happens next, without stopping to figure everything out.

Background: the market behind the noise

Strategy& expects the global Physical AI market to reach €430 billion by 2030, with Autonomous driving taking the biggest slice at about €171 billion, while industrial and smart infrastructure sits near €69 billion. Humanoids and service robots come in around €68 billion.

Europe could account for somewhere between €80 billion and €110 billion. I wouldn’t put much faith in any consultancy’s 2030 forecast, but the ranking is worth noting. 

Public markets have already cooled on the idea that the forecasts convert into revenue any time soon. Symbotic, which runs AI-driven warehouse automation for customers including Walmart, has lost more than 30% of its share price this year after margins came in below expectations.

IFA 2026 opens on 4 September at Messe Berlin and closes on 8 September, so there’s a five-day window to show the doubters something better.