“There are skeptics—but tech giants like Amazon and Nvidia believe he can do it and are investing heavily. The question was not whether the new funding round would happen, but rather when it would take place and how large it would be. For months, David Reger had been negotiating intensively with investors around the globe. Critics had interpreted the prolonged process as a sign of difficult talks. Yet on Wednesday, Reger swept all doubts aside and made a powerful statement: his company, Neura Robotics, raised $1.4 billion—marking the largest funding round ever for a German start-up. This comes at a time when the potential IPOs of SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic are attracting capital the way a high-powered magnet draws iron filings.
The list of backers includes big names: Nvidia and Amazon are involved, as are semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm and crypto firm Tether. From Germany, Bosch and Schaeffler have come on board, alongside several financial investors. They evidently believe Reger can achieve something that not everyone in his home country initially thought possible: transforming Neura Robotics—based in the Swabian provinces—into a major global player capable of holding its own against dominant Chinese competitors as well as Elon Musk and his ambitious plans for Tesla. Is David Reger the next founder-CEO of a multi-billion-dollar corporation—someone following in the footsteps of SAP’s founders and destined to become a billionaire himself?
Publicly, Reger downplays the figures. "The $1.4 billion isn't the most important thing," he tells the *F.A.Z.* Far more significant, he says, is "the trust placed in our vision of 'Physical AI' by some of the world's leading technology, industrial, and AI companies." This capital gives Neura the opportunity to build the future. "Physical AI" is the core of his business model; it combines artificial intelligence (AI) with German robotics engineering. "Many people still believe robotics is primarily a hardware problem," says Reger. But that isn't the case. "The biggest challenge is learning, and a robot can only be as good as the experiences it is allowed to gather." That is why his company built the Neuraverse, an ecosystem for its own robot models—of which there are now several.
"Our goal is to create the world's largest infrastructure for learning physical skills," Reger states confidently. American investors like that sort of thing.
Reger founded his company in 2019. A trained technician, he actually preferred tinkering with fast cars; he ended up—somewhat by chance—at a Swiss machinery manufacturer before striking out on his own. The native of Baden-Württemberg chose Metzingen as the company headquarters for strategic reasons, given its location just outside Stuttgart. Until then, the town was known primarily for Hugo Boss and as a massive outlet shopping destination.
With his small team, Reger developed both the mechanics and the software in-house; he collaborated with Chinese partners but never relinquished control of the patents.
At one point, he even mortgaged his house to overcome a financial crunch. For the past few years, however, Neura has been in the fast lane, manufacturing robot systems for clients such as Kawasaki. While Neura does not disclose revenue figures, it frequently highlights firm orders totaling around one billion euros—a claim that cannot be independently verified.
For years, Reger has been acquiring one industrial building after another in the Metzingen business park, building up his own cluster. Top state politicians—on the lookout for industrial beacons of hope in a struggling automotive heartland—have long been making a habit of visiting the site. "Look here: we are still the land of engineers"—that is the message conveyed by many of the resulting photos.
Neura has also long since established a branch in Munich—the hub of the German tech scene—which is a must for any tech company, if only to attract international talent.
From the very beginning, the 38-year-old family man has focused not only on the technology itself but also on the broader framework and societal implications. Reger speaks of a "historic turning point." In the coming years, significantly more people possessing valuable skills will retire in Europe, Japan, and China than will enter the workforce to replace them. At the same time, the demand for physical labor is growing. "Physical AI is therefore a necessity, not an option." The decisive question in the competition of the coming decades will be how quickly skills can be acquired. For a human, this often takes years. "In the future, a robot will learn the same skill within hours and then be able to transfer it to thousands of other machines with a single click," predicts Reger. "That fundamentally changes the economy."
For him, Physical AI is one of the few technologies where areas where Europe can still operate from a position of strength. Reger aims for nothing less than to take up the mantle of the automotive industry. "I often say internally: We want to become Europe’s largest taxpayer one day, because that would mean we’ve created something that helps millions of people, enables hundreds of thousands of jobs, and makes a genuine contribution to our society." Success, he believes, is also measured by what one gives back.
Reger has articulated certain expectations regarding this, advocating, for instance, for relaxed employment protection regulations for very young companies. He feels that founders face too many obstacles in Germany. When Reger gets talking, his thoughts—often tinged with the idioms of his home region—tend to pour out of him.
Neura’s next growth steps are funded for the time being. The challenges remain immense: autonomous humanoid robots are not an end in themselves. Their widespread industrial deployment must make economic sense for companies. Until then, Neura—like its competitors—faces a great deal of development work. An industry expert compares the current stage of development to that of autonomous driving a decade ago.
Reger, now a recognized figure within the global tech elite, is undeterred by this. "We want to bring AI out of the screen and into the real world—not to replace people, but to support them." If Neura succeeds, he believes "Physical AI" will become one of the most positive developments of our generation. "The real work starts now." [1]
Right.
1. Investoren stürzen sich auf Neura Robotics: David Reger will einen Weltmarktführer in der Robotik schaffen. Es gibt Zweifler - aber Tech-Giganten wie Amazon und Nvidia trauen ihm das zu und geben sehr viel Geld. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung; Frankfurt. 12 June 2026: 28. Von Sven Astheimer, Frankfurt
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