Apptronik Secures $520M for Humanoid Robots
Humanoid robotics company Apptronik raised $520 million in a Series A-X funding round, bringing its total capital to $935 million and its valuation to $5 billion. The round, described as the largest in humanoid funding history, is backed by investors including Google and Mercedes-Benz. Apptronik's Apollo robots are already being deployed at Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics facilities and leverage a partnership with Google DeepMind for AI, likely using Gemini models.
- The company's technical foundation was established at the University of Texas at Austin's Human Centered Robotics Lab, with the founding team having direct experience building NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robot for the DARPA Robotics Challenge. This background provided deep expertise in complex bipedal systems and high-performance series elastic actuators, a core technology in their robots. - CEO Jeff Cardenas combines a business and technology commercialization background from UT Austin and Deloitte Consulting with the technical expertise of co-founders Dr. Nick Paine (CTO) and Dr. Luis Sentis (Scientific Advisor). Dr. Paine's Ph.D. focused on the actuator technology used in the Valkyrie robot, while Dr. Sentis leads the UT lab where the company originated. - Apollo's design prioritizes industrial utility with a 55 lb (25 kg) payload capacity and a hot-swappable battery system that enables up to 22 hours of daily operation. Its modular architecture allows the humanoid torso to be deployed on bipedal legs, a wheeled base for logistics, or a stationary pedestal for manufacturing tasks. - Before developing Apollo, Apptronik built 15 distinct robotic systems, including exoskeletons and earlier humanoids. The company initially bootstrapped by taking on development projects for other firms, including building early prototypes for competitor Sanctuary AI. - The Series A-X extension was raised at a 3x valuation multiple of the initial Series A round from 2025, signaling strong investor confidence. New strategic investors like John Deere and AT&T Ventures join industrial partners Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics, indicating a focus on deploying robots in manufacturing, logistics, and potentially telecommunications infrastructure. - To accelerate AI development, Apptronik is leveraging NVIDIA's Project GR00T, a general-purpose foundation model for humanoid robots designed to enable them to learn tasks from human demonstrations. This complements the previously announced partnership to use Google's Gemini AI models. - The humanoid robotics sector saw a 300% increase in venture capital deal value in 2025, with major funding rounds for competitors like Figure AI. This intense investment and competition, particularly between US and China-based companies, is rapidly accelerating the push for commercial deployments in logistics and manufacturing.
