Humanoid robots are having a moment, but still face an uphill battle

Robots have long been seen as a bad bet for Silicon Valley investors — too complicated, capital-intensive, and “boring, honestly,” says venture capitalist Modar Alaoui.

But the commercial boom in artificial intelligence 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...