Apptronik raises $520 million to scale humanoid robots: Humans and robots working side by side may soon be real

The Austin-based robotics company Apptronik just closed a massive funding round, reportedly bringing its total Series A to over $935 million. Investors are lining up. Old names like Google, Mercedes-Benz, B Capital, and PEAK6 stayed on board. New ones, including AT&T Ventures, John Deere, and Qatar Investment Authority, reportedly joined in. They’re building Apollo, a humanoid robot designed to work alongside humans, but not to replace them. Production and deployment are about to get a serious boost, and the company appears to be gearing up for a very busy 2026, with expanded manufacturing facilities, new enterprise partnerships, and accelerated pilot programmes across logistics, retail, and industrial sectors.As reported by the Apptronik official website, the recent $520 million Series A-X round follows an already oversubscribed $415 million Series A in 2025. That brought the total to nearly $1 billion. Experts say the extension round was opened at a 3x multiple of the original valuation. That suggests investors are betting big on Apptronik’s vision. The company plans to use the capital to ramp up production of Apollo and expand its network of commercial and pilot deployments worldwide.The funding will reportedly support new facilities for robot training and data collection. This could be crucial for improving performance in real-world settings. The goal seems to be faster time-to-market and smoother integration into industries that really need automation, like logistics and manufacturing.Apptronik isn’t working alone but has signed deals with some serious players, including Mercedes-Benz, GXO Logistics, Jabil and Google DeepMind, which is also on board, reportedly helping develop the next generation of humanoid robots using Gemini Robotics. It seems the strategy is to combine robotics hardware with cutting-edge AI to create machines that are genuinely collaborative.Jeff Cardenas, co-founder and CEO, said the company is aiming for robots that aren’t just tools, but trusted collaborators. That’s an interesting shift from traditional industrial robots, which mostly work separately from humans. Apollo is designed to carry out physically demanding and repetitive tasks, working alongside people to transport components, sort items, kit products, and more.The robot reportedly focuses on logistics and manufacturing first. That makes sense. These industries have the most physically intense and repetitive processes. Apollo could free up human workers for more strategic tasks. Experts say that once proven in these sectors, expansion into retail, healthcare, and eventually the home seems likely. The ambition is clearly big. And it might not be far off.Apptronik has been around for nearly a decade, building on previous work, including NASA’s Valkyrie robot. Apollo is the culmination of 15 prior robots. Nearly 300 employees are reportedly contributing to design, testing, and deployment. The company began at the University of Texas at Austin’s Human Centered Robotics Lab, which seems fitting for a business focused on robots that work closely with humans.