Tether mulls $1.15B deal with AI robotics startup Neura: Report

Stablecoin issuer Tether is reportedly eyeing a $1.15 billion investment in German robotics startup Neura — a move that would expand its presence in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence space.

A deal could mark Neura’s value up to the $9.3 billion to $11.6 billion range, according to a report on Friday from the Financial Times, which cited people with “direct knowledge” of the matter.

While the Financial Times reported that Tether and Neura were in the discussion stages, neither party confirmed whether the 1 billion euro ($1.15 billion) deal is in the works.

The reported deal would add to the 140 companies that Tether already backs as the stablecoin issuer expands from Bitcoin mining to AI, energy, finance, and even football teams.

An investment in Neura would support the development of robotics for “smarter automation.”

Neura’s robots aim to assist humans and AI with everything from streamlining production at manufacturing sites and other business operations to performing household tasks and plans to produce 5 million robots by 2030 to perform those tasks.

AI robots may soon be able to help with taking out the trash and any other mundane chores you can think of. NEURA Robotics CEO David Reger says robot 4NE-1 'should be able to do things which we don't like to do' pic.twitter.com/ZVdGovL3h5

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 8, 2024

Tether balance sheet is looking good again in 2025

Tether banked a net profit of more than $10 billion through the first three quarters of 2025, according to its Q3 attestation report posted on Oct. 31.

It builds on the $13.4 billion in profit in 2024, making it one of the most profitable companies in the world on a per-employee basis. It primarily earns revenue from interest on US Treasury bills that back its Tether (USDT) stablecoin, which has a market capitalization of approximately $184 billion.

Tether expands further into commodities

Tether also confirmed its expansion into commodity-trade lending last week, with CEO Paolo Ardoino telling Bloomberg that it has already deployed about $1.5 billion into the sector to gain exposure to agricultural products and oil.

Tether already has tokenized a gold product, Tether Gold (XAUT), which has seen its market cap increase 70% to over $2.1 billion over the last three months amid the bullion’s strong rally of late.

It comes as Tether was reportedly exploring a $20 billion fundraising round in late September that could bump its valuation up to $500 billion, roughly on par with OpenAI.