Apptronik Raises $935M for Humanoid Robots
Humanoid robotics firm Apptronik has raised $935 million in a new funding round, reaching a $5 billion valuation. The Austin-based company is now positioned to scale the deployment of its general-purpose robots for logistics and manufacturing. This capital injection is seen as a signal of high investor confidence in the near-term commercial viability of humanoid platforms.
- Apptronik was founded in 2016 as a spin-off from the Human Centered Robotics Lab at the University of Texas at Austin; its team has deep roots in the field, having previously worked on NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robot. - The company's flagship robot, Apollo, stands 5'8" tall, weighs 160 lbs, and is designed to lift a 55 lb payload. It operates for about four hours per battery, but the hot-swappable battery system allows it to run for up to 22 hours a day. - A key feature of Apollo is its modular architecture, which allows the humanoid upper body to be mounted on bipedal legs, a wheeled base for faster movement on flat floors, or a stationary pedestal for fixed tasks. - For its AI capabilities, Apptronik is collaborating with NVIDIA, utilizing the Project GR00T foundation model to enable Apollo to learn tasks from human demonstrations and interpret multimodal commands. The company also has a strategic partnership with Google DeepMind to accelerate the development of embodied AI. - Apptronik is already deploying Apollo in real-world settings through major partnerships, including with Mercedes-Benz for automotive manufacturing tasks and with global manufacturing services company Jabil to scale production. - The company's commercial strategy initially targets logistics and manufacturing for tasks like palletizing, kitting, and machine loading, with long-term plans to expand into retail, healthcare, and eventually, home assistance.
