{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The OPTIM Update","title":"Building the Foundry for Physical AI | Mike Xia, Anvil Robotics","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2592,"description":"Mike Xia is the co-founder and CEO of Anvil Robotics - building the foundry for physical AI. They make the hardware, software, and data tools that let robotics teams go from zero to model training in days vs months. They've shipped over 100 robots, manufacture in Taiwan, and just raised a $6.5M seed round. Mike gets into the economics of building and shipping a $5,000 arm, why most teams are fighting their own hardware before they can even start on AI, and what's structurally broken in the supply chain that not enough people talk about.\nWe cover:\n00:00 - Intro\n00:45 - What physical AI teams actually go through before training a model\n03:16 - Why the existing robot stack was built for a different era\n04:10 - What it's actually like setting up an SO-100 at home\n05:21 - The leap from toy arms to real payloads\n08:01 - What you get on day one with an Anvil dev kit\n09:12 - What kilohertz-rate sensor fusion actually unlocks\n11:19 - The false tradeoff between payload and force compliance\n14:35 - Why vision alone isn't enough: the dentist analogy\n16:15 - The economics of a $5,000 arm\n20:01 - Scaling from 150 robots to 200 a month\n21:30 - Why all customers came inbound\n22:10 - Retention and repeat orders\n24:47 - If open source isn't the moat, what is?\n28:15 - Why the supply chain is a relationship, not a transaction\n28:36 - How to do customization without becoming a services company\n31:30 - How many of 1,500 new robotics startups survive 24 months?\n34:52 - The most technically wrong thing teams are doing in 2026\n38:57 - What happens when your whole fleet breaks and you don't know why\n40:40 - What will look obvious in five years\n42:29 - Where to learn more about Anvil\nAnvil Robotics: https://anvil.bot\nThe OPTIM Update covers real-world AI, automation, robotics, industrial systems and AI Infrastructure for founders, investors, and operators.\nSubscribe: https://www.optim.vc","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/MD1uw3xsUV8NIC9WNTbAWnAxAqctNuVEgSaMzKwMDRQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9jYTFk/YTA0N2ZmOThmMmZl/ZGVjMjA3NWMwZDUw/YmRlMS5qcGVn.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}