Apptronik, Inc.
Comment: While it did get WP:SIGCOV, notably in Bloomberg, it seems WP:TOOSOON for an article. Most of the coverage is trivial, and WP:CORPDEPTH is not passed yet. I do think it's possible the Apollo robot line could be notable instead, just not the company. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 10:38, 31 August 2026 (UTC)
- Comment: See WP:CORPTRIV. guninvalid (talk) 22:48, 27 August 2026 (UTC)
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Robotics |
| Founded 📆 | 2016 in Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Founders 👔 | Jeff Cardenas, Nick Paine, Luis Sentis |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , Austin, Texas , U.S. |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Jeff Cardenas (CEO) Nick Paine (CTO) Kay Sheils Kingsbury (CFO) |
| Products 📟 | Apollo (humanoid robot) |
| Members | |
Number of employees | c. 300 (2026) |
| 🌐 Website | [Lua error in Module:WikidataIB at line 665: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value). ] |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Apptronik is an American robotics company in Austin, Texas, that develops general-purpose humanoid robots. Founded in 2016 as an offshoot of the University of Texas at Austin Human Centered Robotics Lab, the company developed Apollo, a humanoid robot deployed first in industrial settings such as manufacturing and logistics.[1] It has collaborated with NASA and Google DeepMind and has run pilot programs with companies including Mercedes-Benz, GXO Logistics, and Jabil.[2][3]
The company is one of several developing humanoid robots for industrial settings, alongside competitors such as Tesla, Figure AI, and Agility Robotics.[4] It trains Apollo largely through real-world data collection at Robot Park, an Austin facility opened in 2026, in partnership with Google DeepMind.[5][6] By 2026 it had raised close to $1 billion and was valued at about $5 billion.[3][7]
History
Apptronik grew out of the University of Texas at Austin Human Centered Robotics Lab, whose researchers worked on NASA's Valkyrie humanoid during the 2013 DARPA Robotics Challenge.[4][7] The company was founded in 2016 by Jeff Cardenas, who became CEO, and Nick Paine, who became CTO.[8]
Before turning to a commercial humanoid, Apptronik built a series of earlier systems, including powered exoskeletons for U.S. special operations forces and DRACO 3, a teen-sized bipedal humanoid built for its former university lab.[9] In September 2022, it announced a partnership with NASA, conducted through the agency's Small Business Innovation Research program, to help commercialize Apollo, whose architecture drew on the earlier Valkyrie work.[2][10] Apptronik unveiled the first Apollo on August 23, 2023.[1] By 2026 the company had about 300 employees and said Apollo drew on nearly a decade of work across 15 earlier robots.[11]
Apollo
Apollo is Apptronik's general-purpose humanoid robot, designed to work in spaces built for people. Unveiled in 2023, it is a roughly human-sized electric robot offered both as a walking bipedal humanoid and as a torso on a wheeled base, the wheeled form intended to meet existing industrial safety standards for mobile robots.[1][11] For its hands, Apptronik has used third-party robotic hands rather than developing its own.[9]
Apollo has been used for repetitive, physically demanding work such as moving materials, sorting, and loading, and has been tested in pilot and research programs with partners including Mercedes-Benz, GXO Logistics, and Jabil.[12] As of 2026, the robots operated within areas bounded by external sensors, pausing if a person crossed a boundary, rather than moving freely among workers.[12]
Cardenas has characterized the mainstreaming of humanoid robots as a gradual process rather than a sudden breakthrough, and has distanced himself from predictions of near-term household robots.[5] The humanoid-robot field has also drawn skepticism, with some technologists arguing that general-purpose humanoids are a costly distraction from robots built for specific tasks.[5]
In June 2026, Apptronik introduced Apollo 2 and opened Robot Park, a roughly 90,000 sq ft (8,400 m2) data-collection and training facility in a former Dell plant in Austin.[3][5][6] At the facility, Apollo robots practice warehouse and manufacturing tasks, mostly under remote human control, to generate data used to train the AI models that operate them.[6][5] The company says real-world testing captures physical conditions, such as wear and slippage, that digital simulations cannot, and that the site can hold far more robots than its previous location.[13] The company has described Apollo 2 as a prototype and data-collection platform and said its planned Apollo 3 would be its first commercial product.[3][11]
Partnerships
Apptronik has a research partnership with Google DeepMind, announced in December 2024, to develop humanoid robots using Google's Gemini AI models; the data gathered at Robot Park feeds those models.[12][11] It has also collaborated with NASA on Apollo's development and has tested Apollo in industrial pilots with Mercedes-Benz, GXO Logistics, and Jabil.[10][11] Under a 2025 agreement, Jabil began using Apollo in its own factories for validation tasks such as inspection, sorting, and kitting, including on production lines intended to eventually build Apollo robots.[14]
Funding
Apptronik was self-financed for its first five years and raised about $65 million by early 2025.[15] Over 2025 and 2026 it raised a Series A that grew to more than $935 million, bringing total funding to nearly $1 billion at a valuation of about $5 billion.[7][3] Investors include Google and Mercedes-Benz, which also work with the company commercially, as well as John Deere and the Qatar Investment Authority.[16] The company's chief financial officer is Kay Sheils Kingsbury.[17]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Meet Apollo, the 'iPhone' of humanoid robots". CNN. 2023-08-23. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Cobler, Nicole (2022-09-21). "Austin-based Apptronik partners with NASA". Axios Austin. Retrieved 2026-06-24.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Sriram, Akash (2026-06-30). "Apptronik launches robot training hub, unveils Apollo 2 humanoid robot". Reuters. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Metz, Cade (2025-04-04). "Invasion of the Home Humanoid Robots". The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Brustein, Joshua (2026-06-25). "Apptronik's Robots Can Strut, But Its CEO Isn't Bragging Yet". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Jetha, Rya (2026-06-30). "This $5.5 billion robotics startup built a school for humanoids". Business Insider. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Bort, Julie (2026-02-11). "Humanoid robot startup Apptronik has now raised $935M at a $5B+ valuation". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2026-06-23. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "techcrunch-935" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Tantawi, Sarah (2024). "AI in Action". McCombs Magazine. University of Texas at Austin. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Oitzman, Mike (2023-08-23). "Apptronik unveils Apollo humanoid robot". The Robot Report. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Wickes, Rebecca (2023-08-23). "NASA Experience Enables Advance of Small Business's Humanoid Robot". NASA. Retrieved 2026-06-24.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 The Robot Report Staff (2026-07-01). "Apptronik unveils Apollo 2 and a flagship data collection and training facility". The Robot Report. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Field, Hayden (2026-02-11). "Apptronik raises $520 million at $5 billion valuation for Apollo robot". CNBC. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
- ↑ Jones, Rachyl (2026-07-02). "Apptronik turns robot simulations into reality". Semafor. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ "Jabil to Deploy Apptronik's Robots in its Manufacturing Operations". Automation World. 2025-03-19. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
- ↑ Sorkin, Andrew Ross; de la Merced, Michael J. (2025-02-13). "Inflation Is Trump's Problem Now". DealBook. The New York Times. Retrieved 2026-07-02.
- ↑ Crowe, Steve (2026-02-11). "Apptronik brings in another $520M to ramp up Apollo production". The Robot Report. Retrieved 2026-06-23.
- ↑ Huguley, Collin (2026-07-16). "Apptronik's Kay Sheils Kingsbury earns Best CFO award". Austin Business Journal. Retrieved 2026-07-19.
Category:Robotics companies of the United States
Category:Manufacturing companies based in Austin, Texas
Category:American companies established in 2016
Category:Manufacturing companies established in 2016
Category:Humanoid robots
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