XDOF, which is building data pipelines, collection tools, and annotation systems for robot training data, emerges from stealth with $70M (Tim Fernholz/TechCrunch)

<a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/collecting-robot-training-data-is-dirty-unglamorous-work-some-ai-labs-are-already-paying-xdof-to-do-it/"><img align="RIGHT" border="0" hspace="4" src="http://www.techmeme.com/260617/i31.jpg" vspace="4" /></a> <p><a href="https://www.techmeme.com/260617/p31#a260617p31" title="Techmeme permalink"><img height="12" src="http://www.techmeme.com/img/pml.png" style="border: none; padding: 0; margin: 0;" width="11" /></a> Tim Fernholz / <a href="http://techcrunch.com/">TechCrunch</a>:<br /> <span style="font-size: 1.3em;"><b><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2026/06/17/collecting-robot-training-data-is-dirty-unglamorous-work-some-ai-labs-are-already-paying-xdof-to-do-it/">XDOF, which is building data pipelines, collection tools, and annotation systems for robot training data, emerges from stealth with $70M</a></b></span>&nbsp; &mdash;&nbsp; Two weeks ago, OpenAI said it would relaunch the robotics program it shuttered in 2021 &mdash; the latest signal that the biggest AI labs are racing to teach machines to operate in the physical world.</p>