Apptronik, a humanoid robotics developer headquartered in Austin, Texas, announced a $520 million funding round on Wednesday, with backers that include Google and Mercedes-Benz. A source familiar with the matter said the Series A extension places the company’s valuation at about $5 billion.
The round also brought in participation from B Capital and the Qatar Investment Authority, and comes roughly a year after Apptronik completed a $415 million financing. Company executives said the fresh capital will be directed toward advancing new iterations of Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid, increasing production capacity and growing the workforce, which today exceeds 300 employees.
Planned uses for the proceeds include building a robot training and data collection facility in Austin and opening an office in California. Apptronik’s chief executive, Jeff Horden, said the company anticipates more factory and warehouse deployments of humanoid robots over the remainder of this year and into the next.
Apptronik is positioning its Apollo platform for initial adoption by manufacturing and logistics customers. The company already has commercial agreements with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics and is planning longer-term expansion into assisted care and home-use markets. The Apollo design incorporates both legs and wheels so the robots can move through industrial environments and access existing workstations and shelving, a configuration Apptronik says could reduce the need for task-specific industrial machinery over time.
The company is deepening a technological partnership with Google DeepMind. According to Horden, DeepMind co-develops Gemini-based artificial intelligence models used on the Apollo platform, while Apptronik contributes hardware and real-world training data gathered during deployments.
Apptronik traces its origins to 2016 as a University of Texas spinout with early work linked to the NASA Valkyrie humanoid program. Investors and management cite a competitive advantage in certain hardware components. Howard Morgan, a general partner at B Capital, highlighted the firm’s robotic hand design and said Apptronik has assembled a substantial commercial order pipeline. Morgan added that the company’s valuation appears attractive relative to its potential.
The financing arrives amid a broader industry push to field human-like robots for industrial applications. Other firms pursuing humanoid development include Tesla and Figure AI, which has backing from Nvidia and was recently valued at $39 billion. Apptronik’s leaders say the market focus remains on replacing or supplementing manual tasks in manufacturing and logistics before moving into other application areas.
Key takeaways:
- Apptronik raised $520 million in a Series A extension, led by investors including Google and Mercedes-Benz, valuing the company at about $5 billion.
- Proceeds will fund Apollo robot development, production scale-up, a training and data facility in Austin, and a new California office; headcount exceeds 300 employees.
- Commercial engagements exist with Mercedes-Benz and GXO Logistics; the company also partners with Google DeepMind on Gemini-based models, supplying hardware and deployment data.
Risks and uncertainties:
- Deployment timing and commercial scale-up - The company expects increased deployments this year and next, but actual rollout schedules may vary, affecting manufacturing and logistics adoption.
- Competition from well-funded rivals - Other firms developing humanoids could influence market dynamics and customer choices in industrial automation and robotics procurement.
- Technology integration and training data needs - Success depends on effective integration of Gemini-based AI with Apptronik hardware and the collection of sufficient real-world training data from deployments.