A Scarecrow No Longer

It all started in space…

In early 2016, Apptronik – a spinout of the University of Texas – received a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Ahead of its time, the team at Apptronik built Valkyrie – arguably the world’s first robonaut. It was an impressive feat, considering this was almost a decade ago.

Apptronik’s Valkyrie | Source: NASA

Valkyrie was designed as a prototype for both extraterrestrial missions as well as for harsh environments here on Earth, like dangerous industrial sites or a damaged nuclear power plant like Fukushima.

Apptronik’s work with NASA led to additional grants from the Department of Defense involving exoskeleton technology development and early humanoid robot prototypes for defense applications.

It was interesting work. I had been keeping tabs on the company, but it was acting more like a robotics research and development lab for the U.S. government rather than a private high-tech company with commercial ambitions.

That started to change in 2022 when the company began to raise venture capital and signaled a clear shift in focus toward commercial applications for its robotics technology versus defense-focused applications.

It was in 2023 that Apptronik unveiled its general-purpose humanoid robot prototype, called Apollo.

Here’s what CEO and co-founder Jeff Cardenas said of Apollo in an Apptronik press release at the time…

Continued investment from NASA validates the work we are doing at Apptronik and the inflection point we have reached in robotics. The robots we’ve all dreamed about are now here and ready to get out into the world. These robots will first become tools for us here on Earth and will ultimately help us move beyond and explore the stars.

Over the last 12 months, company developments indicated that it was making some smart moves and gaining momentum.

The Rise of Apollo

In March of last year, Apptronik announced it was partnering with NVIDIA to integrate its hardware – its Apollo humanoid robot – with NVIDIA’s general-purpose foundational AI model for robotic learning (GR00T).

This particular announcement caught my eye because Apptronik is primarily a hardware company. In fact, the area where Apptronik has the most intellectual property is in actuator technology – the component that converts energy – specifically electricity – into motion.

Creating extremely precise actuators capable of working under great stress is one of the most important challenges to solve with humanoid robots.

So, the work with NVIDIA made perfect sense. Apptronik would bring its humanoid robot with its advanced actuators, and NVIDIA would provide its GR00T artificial intelligence software, enabling Apollo to learn new skills.

Apollo is primarily designed for industrial and logistics settings. Shown below is a short clip where Apollo is loading boxes onto a pallet.

Source: Apptronik

Another application is for the picking and sorting of boxes and inventory in a distribution center, as shown below.

Source: Apptronik

The purpose of Apollo is similar to that of Figure AI’s 02 or Tesla’s Optimus – to address labor shortages, curb employee turnover, and reduce work-related injuries.

But things got really interesting when Apptronik announced that it signed a strategic partnership with Google’s DeepMind division, the same division responsible for some of the largest breakthroughs in AI in history.

More specifically, Apptronik would be working with Google’s Agentic AI, Gemini 2.0 Pro, as well as with the AI robotics team within DeepMind. Outside of working with Tesla’s Optimus team, which isn’t possible, this is the second-best option. This single partnership addressed Apptronik’s biggest weakness, Apollo’s lack of a “brain.”

For the keen eye, there was even a short clip of Apollo playing the game Jenga in a Google video released about Gemini 2.0 in December. The full video can be seen here, and the short clip of Apollo’s hands is shown below.

Source: Google

It’s an interesting demonstration as it shows the fine motor skills of Apollo’s hands manipulating the pieces of a tricky game.

This Missing Element

It was clear that Apptronik was making material progress in integrating the software (NVIDIA & DeepMind’s AI software) with its hardware (the Apollo robot). But the company was missing one key thing that I knew it needed to consider it a serious contender…

Capital. A whole lot of capital.

And now it has it.

Days ago, Apptronik announced that it raised $350 million to lean into the race for manufacturing intelligent general-purpose humanoid robots. This impressive raise gives Apptronik the capital it needs to accelerate and compete against companies like Figure AI and Tesla.

It’s a notable figure. This single round, for example, is more than Agility Robotics has raised over the last 10 years ($328 million).

And given the latest moves by Apptronik with DeepMind and NVIDIA, I believe Apptronik will jump quickly into third place behind Figure AI and Tesla, which is why we’re going to keep a close eye on the company.

The round was led by B Capital – an Icelandic family office – and Capital Factory out of Austin, Texas, with additional investment from Google. Samsung is also an investor from an earlier round.

The leading humanoid robotics companies will be ripe for acquisition as companies realize how advanced the technology has become and how valuable they are for both enterprise and consumer applications.

Not only is this a major investable theme, but it’s also going to feel like our humanoid collaborators appeared out of nowhere… adoption will be rapid.

And “they” will be walking on Earth well before the robonaut has its chance to walk on the moon.

Jeff