# May 2026 Update > Source: > Published: 2026-05-29 16:04:37+00:00 # May 2026 Update ### Humanoids, drones, cybersecurity, model-memory research May brought new fundraises, new research, and a packed calendar across SF, NYC, and Bangalore. **If you’re interested in joining SPC, apply here.** **Events at SPC** In NYC, Soleio hosted a **Design Chat **with** Dylan Babbs**, SPC alum and current CTO at ** Profound**. In Bangalore we hosted - **1 to Razorpay**, where **Harshil Mathur** unpacked the challenge of building payments infrastructure at planetary scale, and **with** [-1 to Space](https://x.com/adityaag/status/2060029206105600285),**actual astronaut** **Shubhanshu Shukla.** In SF, ** Demo Night** showcased explorations at the edge of what’s possible: model memory research, tactile hardware-software interfaces, and new operating systems for an agentic world. The month closed with the ** SPC Embodied AI Hackathon,** where teams designed and completed a challenge to bring intelligence into the physical world involving manipulation, locomotion, simulation, or flight, with bonus points for collaboration. We ran SPC as a fully-stocked robotics lab including humanoids, drones, SO-101 arms, and 3D printers. From the [Desktop Robot Assistant](https://x.com/southpkcommons/status/2057876338753900946), which moved a candy bar using voice agents, VLMs, and ACT policies, to the [autonomous drone that tracks your squats](https://x.com/southpkcommons/status/2057876342482579553)and coaches your form in real-time, many teams had end-to-end policies running on real hardware by the end of the weekend. **Member Updates** **Product Launches & Company News** **Cognition**[raised over $1B in a Series D](https://cognition.ai/blog/series-d)at a $26B valuation led by Lux Capital, General Catalyst, and 8VC.**Recursive**[raised $650M](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/13/technology/recursive-superintelligence-funding-ai.html)at a $4.65B valuation led by GV and Greycroft, building AI that recursively improves itself via open-ended algorithms.**Vori**[raised $22M in a Series B](https://www.vori.com/b)to build the self-driving OS for grocery stores, processing over $500M in payments across 55 cities.**Goodfire** launched[Silico](https://www.goodfire.ai/silico), a platform for building AI models with the precision of written software.**VMax** published[PopuLoRA](https://vmax.ai/team/populora-co-evolving-llm-populations-for-reasoning-self-play), research on co-evolving LLM populations for reasoning self-play.**Asymptote Labs** open-sourced[Agent Beacon](https://github.com/Asymptote-Labs/agent-beacon), a tool for AI agent security. **Personal Projects, Explorations & Publications** **Rex** released[PathOn Robotics](https://x.com/RexDQZhang/status/2053595781492535467), showing a custom navigation stack running on a Unitree Go2.**Arya** published a piece on[debugging multi-agent systems](https://aryatafvizi.substack.com/p/beyond-tracing-understanding-multi), with a follow-up[case study on iterative refinement](https://open.substack.com/pub/aryatafvizi/p/iterative-refinement-of-a-multi-agent).**Jake** shared a[directory of 12,000+ open-source STEP parts](https://x.com/soft_servo/status/2054716756690948107)for mechanical and electrical engineering, and released[text-to-cad](https://x.com/earthtojake/status/2057203608207466982)for generating 3D models in coding agents. **Coming Up** **Recent Content** We released new conversations with ** Nikesh Arora** (Palo Alto Networks), **(Luma AI), and** [Amit Jain](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qR7pLTCZ78&t=7s)**(tldraw) covering everything from why the most defensible AI companies are building world models, to the infinite canvas as a use case for agents, to the cybersecurity crisis ahead.** [Steve Ruiz](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNUEaFmPAwc)Thanks for reading! The work continues.