This $5.5 billion robotics startup built a school for humanoids - Business Insider
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Key takeaways
- The most recent wave of humanoid‑robot news shows the technology moving rapidly from prototypes to commercial deployments and large‑scale financing.
- In early July, Chinese firms UBTECH and Unitree Robotics announced new manufacturing and service hubs in the Tianjin Economic‑Technological Development Area, positioning the region as a hub for mass production, after UBTECH’s Walker S2 demonstrated autonomous battery swapping.
- In the United States, Agility Robotics confirmed a SPAC merger that will list the company as the only publicly traded pure‑play humanoid maker, building on its Digit deployments across nine customer sites including Amazon and Toyota.
- Meanwhile, Apptronik highlighted its dual‑mode Apollo platform—both legged and wheeled—and its plan to create public “Robot Parks” worldwide.
- In Europe, AGIBOT unveiled its A3 humanoid at a London conference and launched a robot‑as‑a‑service model for retail and hospitality use.
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The latest news and analysis on robotics, from humanoid AI to real-world automation.
The latest news and analysis on robotics, from humanoid AI to real-world automation.
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This $5.5 billion robotics startup built a school for humanoids
By Rya Jetha The humanoid race is starting to move from lab demos into early commercial tests. San Jose-basedFigure AI, most recently valued at $39 billion, is beginning deployments in logistics and distribution centers. 1X, headquartered in Palo Alto, plans to ship more than 10,000 humanoids to homes later this year.
Oregon-based Agility Robotics is further along. The company plans to go public soon, and Digit, its humanoid robot, is deployed across nine customer facilities, including Amazon, Toyota, and logistics company GXO. Unlike most humanoid companies that are only building walking robots, Apptronik has both legged and wheeled versions of Apollo. Cardenas sees the biggest long-term potential in legged humanoids because they could eventually do anything a human can physically do. But he expects wheeled robots to be deployed sooner because they are safer. Legged robots have to support heavy batteries in their torsos, which consumes more power and creates safety risks if they fall.
Apptronik has other Robot Parks at customer sites across the world. Cardenas said more are coming.
"The dream is to have Robot Parks all over the world, and actually make them open to the public, so people can see how the future is being built," he said.
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