# Chestnut Robotics: robotics company

Canonical ID: `b3270e9b-f5f6-4446-849e-c7e8af00edf6`

## Key facts

- **CEO:** Evan Tao (Co-founder and CEO)
- **CTO:** Joe (Xu) Dong (Co-founder and CTO)
- **Founded:** 2025
- **HQ:** Santa Clara, CA
- **Former name:** TetherIA
- **Funding:** Angel round (Oct 2025), led by Matrix Partners China
- **Financial stage:** Early-stage (pre-Series A)
- **Team background:** Ex-Tesla Optimus, Waymo, XPeng, Apple, ASML, Zoox

- **Slug:** chestnut-robotics
- **Status:** Private
- **Founded:** 2025
- **HQ:** Santa Clara, CA

## Models

- [Aero Hand](/models/chestnut-aero-hand.md) (other) (id: `5a873de1-e3b1-465d-a17c-fd43a730b2e0`)

## Current leadership (2)

- [Joe (Xu) Dong](/people/joe-dong.md) Co-founder & CTO (_reported, not verified_)
- [Evan Tao](/people/evan-tao-chestnut.md) Co-founder and CEO (_reported, not verified_)

## Founders (2)

- [Joe (Xu) Dong](/people/joe-dong.md) (cofounder)
- [Evan Tao](/people/evan-tao-chestnut.md) _no longer at company_

## Supplies to

_No verified supply relationships on file. Supply-chain coverage is being added across the registry; check back as the seed populates this company's outbound edges._

_Outbound supply edges. Each appears when verified with at least two strong sources. Sources are append-only; corrections add new sources rather than rewrite history._

## Common questions

### What is Chestnut Robotics?

Chestnut Robotics (formerly TetherIA) builds tendon-driven dexterous robot hands designed for real-world factory deployment. The company's flagship [Aero Hand](/models/aero-hand) is an 18-DOF production-grade hand with sub-millimeter precision, 0.1 N tactile sensitivity, and 20 kg payload, engineered for 3M+ duty cycles. Chestnut also develops the Aero UMI data-collection exoskeleton and GAIN3D geometry-aware inpainting engine to generate zero-embodiment-gap training data for robotic foundation models. Founded in 2025 in Santa Clara, CA by ex-[Tesla](/companies/tesla) Optimus and [Waymo](/companies/waymo) engineers.

### What does Chestnut Robotics make?

Chestnut Robotics has 1 robot model on the DEPLOY registry: Aero Hand (Chestnut Robotics builds physical robots).

### Is Chestnut Robotics publicly traded?

No. Chestnut Robotics is privately held and not publicly traded, per the DEPLOY registry.

### Where is Chestnut Robotics headquartered?

Chestnut Robotics is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.

### Where does Chestnut Robotics operate robots?

Chestnut Robotics is a robot manufacturer and does not directly operate deployments on the DEPLOY registry. Its products are deployed by customer operators; see the company page for the verified deployment record.

### Is Chestnut Robotics a top robotics company?

On DEPLOY's intelligence score, which blends verified deployments, funding, hiring, media, safety, and IP signals, Chestnut Robotics ranks in roughly the top 100% of companies tracked by the registry.


## Sources (5)

1. **Chestnut Robotics — We build the data-driven dexterous hand** · https://chestnut.bot/
2. https://chestnut.bot/master-plan.html
3. **Chestnut Robotics — LinkedIn** · https://www.linkedin.com/company/chestnutbot
4. https://x.com/ChestnutRobotic
5. **Robotics companies like MagicLab turn to synthetic data in the embodied intelligence race** · https://kr-asia.com/robotics-companies-like-magiclab-turn-to-synthetic-data-in-the-embodied-intelligence-race

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