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Operator of a robotics company intended to deliver and scale a variety of general-purpose robots. The company's general-purpose humanoid robots are capable of handling tasks typically performed by humans and have versatile functionality like case picking, down stacking, trailer unloading, palletizing, sortation, and handling heavy lifting, enabling industries to address labor shortages, improve job satisfaction by taking over undesirable tasks, and enhance efficiency.
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With Google investing $150M, Apptronik has emerged as a major humanoid company. Elon Musk (tweet): “The Humanoid robot opportunity is the single biggest opportunity ever”. The robotics & humanoid sector is gaining huge traction, highlighted by Figure, (~60x return for Series A investors) who just announced their $1.5B Series C on a $38B pre-money valuation. This represents a ~12x net mark-up since their Series B last year. Given the capabilities of Apptronik’s humanoid, their exceptional technical team, and their recently inked partnership with Google and several large pilot customers, we think Apptronik has the potential to do what Figure did in the past year.
Strategic Partnership with Google: Just last month, the company announced a major strategic investment + partnership with Google, where Google will be investing $150M into the company and allocating 100+ Deep Mind engineers to work with the Apptronik team over the next several years (worth likely $100m+ as well). This is Google’s largest investment into the humanoid space, ever. Apptronik will own the hardware and Google Deepmind team will be building the robotics foundation model.
Scaling Traction: Apptronik has secured Letters of Intent for 11,000 units, representing over $800M in ARR with $100B in pipeline. The company has Mercedes, NASA, DHL, Audi, Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, Samsung, and more. Apollo’s modular design and Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model have attracted strong demand across industries– commercial pilots are already underway with 13 industry leaders, and Apptronik is actively expanding its pipeline, valued at over $100B.
Massive Problem + Growing Market: We are in the midst of a labor crisis with predictions indicating that by 2030, we will have an 85M job shortage representing $8.5T in unrealized GDP. With an aging population and many workers looking to upskill, we are looking at a massive shortage of workers in the coming years to do tens of millions of jobs that are repetitive, dangerous or boring. At the very same time, we are in the earliest innings of recognizing the sheer potential that artificial intelligence will have on our future. In the same way that large language models have boosted productivity and innovation for white collar workers, Apptronik’s humanoids have the potential to boost productivity and innovation for blue collar jobs. Apptronik’s vision is a future where humanoid robots work alongside us on a global scale, an opportunity that could both disrupt and augment the entire $42T / year labor market in a massive way.
How This Market Will Unfold: We believe the humanoid market is shaping up to be similar to that of the car manufacturing industry, where there will be multiple winners going after different sectors / use cases. Where cars replaced most modes of ground transportation, we expect humanoids to not only replace most forms of human labor, but to also expand the market by making physical labor cheaper (home assistance, elder care, construction) and addressing labor force shortages. When the market potential is the size of all human labor combined ($40T+) and in the future, robots will likely outnumber humans by as much as 3:1 - the market opportunity here will cater to many robotics companies, potentially with multiple robotics companies surpassing the trillion dollar mark. It is not a winner take all market.
The Solution: Apptronik has emerged as a major humanoid company pointing at disrupting the labor market ($40T). Apptronik’s Apollo robot is a modular, scalable, and highly capable humanoid solution designed to meet the diverse demands of the modern workforce. With advanced linear actuators, AI-driven learning systems, and swappable batteries enabling 24/7 operation, Apollo combines unmatched versatility, energy efficiency, and safety. Its adaptable design allows seamless deployment across industries like logistics, retail, and healthcare, whether as a bipedal robot, on wheeled platforms, or in stationary configurations. Focused on mass manufacturability and supply chain resiliency, Apollo is designed to advance labor automation by integrating into human-centered environments and learning from demonstration to tackle diverse use cases.
Strong Founding Team: The company was spun out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at UT Austin with a founding team from NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more. The company is led by Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder / CEO) who was previously CSO and VP of Strategy at Apptroniks for the last eight years and holds a Master’s degree in Technology Commercialization from UT Austin. Nick Paine (CTO), with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin, brings over a decade of robotics expertise and was instrumental in developing NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot. Dr. Luis Sentis (Scientific Advisor), an Associate Professor at UT Austin with over 100 scientific publications, provides strategic guidance with his extensive expertise in human-centered robotics and dynamic control. The broader team comprises backgrounds in Al and robotics across various industry leaders including NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more.
Why We Think This is a Good Deal: We are purchasing preferred shares at $14.10 PPS, which is ~5% premium to the recently closed $350M Series A on $1.4B pre-money valuation. Given the capabilities of Apptronik’s humanoid, their exceptional technical team, and their recently inked partnership with Google and several large pilot customers, we think Apptronik has the potential to do what Figure did in the past year.
Strong Co-Investors: Apptronik just closed an oversubscribed $350M Series A with Google investing $150M ($90M now / $60M upon delivery of next gen Apollo), Capital Factory investing $100M, B Capital investing $50M w/ Howard Morgan joining the board.
We are in the midst of a labor crisis with predictions indicating that by 2030, we will have an 85M job shortage representing $8.5T in unrealized GDP. With an aging population and many workers looking to upskill, we are looking at a massive shortage of workers in the coming years to do tens of millions of jobs in just about every major industry. At the very same time, we are in the earliest stages of recognizing the sheer potential that artificial intelligence will have on our future. In the same way that large language models have boosted productivity and innovation for white collar workers, Apptronik’s humanoids have the potential to boost productivity and innovation for blue collar jobs. Apptronik’s vision is a future where humanoid robots work alongside us on a global scale, an opportunity that could both disrupt and augment the entire $30T / year labor market in a massive way.
The economics for humanoid robot companies are absurd. While we expect there to be billions of robots (like there are cars, computers, cell phones, people), selling just 1 million robots in a year at an average cost of $50k would equate to $50 billion in revenue. Compare this to Palantir which has $3b in annualized revenue and trades at a $250b valuation. Even at a 10x rev multiple the enterprise value would be $500 billion. Eventually we expect humanoid companies to scale to tens of millions of hundreds of millions in annual production capacity. Robots can work 24/7/365 with no need to pay health insurance, bonuses, other expenses humans require. So in the next few years we expect these efficiency improvements to allow customers to receive great value for robots priced at $50-100k, and long term for robots to settle below $30k once manufacturing can meet demand.
Apptronik is building scalable, versatile humanoid robots capable of addressing labor shortages across various industries and disrupting the labor market ($40T).
Apptronik’s Apollo robot is a modular, scalable, and highly capable humanoid solution designed to meet the diverse demands of the modern workforce. With advanced linear actuators, AI-driven learning systems, and swappable batteries enabling 24/7 operation, Apollo combines unmatched versatility, energy efficiency, and safety. Its adaptable design allows seamless deployment across industries like logistics, retail, and healthcare, whether as a bipedal robot, on wheeled platforms, or in stationary configurations. Focused on mass manufacturability and supply chain resiliency, Apollo is positioned as a revolutionary force in labor automation, seamlessly integrating into human-centered environments and learning from demonstration to tackle diverse use cases.
Apptronik’s actuators also offer exceptional energy efficiency, allowing longer operational periods. For instance, Apollo supports four hours of work per battery, with swappable batteries enabling continuous operation. This contrasts with competitors requiring extended charging times. Apollo’s modular design and 55-pound payload capacity further enhance flexibility and performance, allowing it to handle tasks requiring both strength and precision.
The company is also advancing a robust AI strategy, developing foundational models based on open-source technologies and partnering with leading AI providers. This enables real-time learning from human demonstrations, continually improving the robots’ capabilities.
Apptronik’s hardware architecture provides a significant supply chain advantage. By using off-the-shelf components, the company reduces manufacturing costs and enhances scalability. The modular design simplifies maintenance, as individual actuators can be serviced independently, further reducing downtime and costs.
By combining advanced actuator technology, energy efficiency, modularity, and intelligent AI integration, Apptronik has the potential to lead the humanoid robotics industry. Its vision of safer, more efficient, and adaptable robots capable of performing diverse tasks—particularly those humans are less willing to do—establishes it as a key innovator in the future of work and automation.
Apptronik’s Apollo, is a humanoid robot designed to be a scalable and commercially-viable general-purpose robot. Standing 5’8”, 160 pounds, Apollo features a 55-pound payload capacity and operates with a modular, swappable battery system enabling up to 24/7 runtime. Fully electric and equipped with cutting-edge linear actuators for superior energy efficiency, Apollo will bring together the dexterity of the human form and cutting edge AI to go beyond single-function robots and lend support across manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail.
Apptronik’s development strategy focuses on creating humanoid robots that combine advanced hardware, scalable production, and robust safety standards to tackle real-world challenges. Apollo, the flagship robot, features a proprietary linear actuator for exceptional energy efficiency, modularity, and affordability, with a target price under $50,000. Its AI-driven control system enables autonomous operation in dynamic environments, adapting to new tasks through real-time learning and human demonstration. Designed for mass manufacturability and supply chain optimization, Apollo scales efficiently to meet the needs of industries like logistics, healthcare, and retail. This innovative approach positions Apptronik as a leader in robotics, redefining human-robot interaction and unlocking transformative opportunities for businesses and consumers.
The GTM strategy focuses on securing partnerships with leading companies across diverse sectors, targeting industries such as logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail. The company has initiated discussions with multiple Fortune 500 organizations and is actively running 13 pilot programs with top-tier partners, including Mercedes, NASA, Google DeepMind, and NVIDIA.
In the near term, Apptronik aims to refine Apollo’s capabilities through these pilot deployments, iterating on feedback from key customer use cases to ensure readiness for full-scale commercial deployment within the next 1-2 years. With LOIs for nearly 6,900 robots and a robust $100B pipeline, Apptronik anticipates finalizing additional high-profile agreements in early Q1 2025. This strategic approach positions the company to accelerate adoption across critical industries and solidify its leadership in the rapidly growing humanoid robotics market.
There are 4 key stages to commercial deployment that will be the focus of these first 2-3 customer engagements:
In short, Apptronik is intentionally limiting pilot engagements to a select few high-priority customers to avoid resource strain and ensure optimal outcomes. Early pilots are focused on straightforward, high-impact use cases, avoiding complex tasks that require extensive dexterity. With nearly 6,900 units already under LOI and a potential $1B+ revenue opportunity with just 5% workforce replacement at pilot companies, Apptronik is well-positioned to transform the labor market through scalable humanoid robotics.
Apptronik employs a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model to provide humanoid robots for applications such as logistics and warehousing. Under this model, customers deploy Apollo robots in their facilities and pay a recurring fee based on usage. This approach generates predictable revenue and fosters long-term customer partnerships.
The RaaS offering includes maintenance, software updates, and hardware optimization, ensuring Apollo operates at peak performance while minimizing downtime. By pricing Apollo at an initial discount to human labor costs (around $25/hour) with significant cost reductions projected, Apptronik makes automation an appealing solution for labor-intensive tasks.
With long-term gross margins approaching 70% and the potential to undercut human labor costs by up to 50%, Apptronik’s RaaS model accelerates adoption across industries. This scalable approach enables the company to pursue significant revenue opportunities to revolutionize work and automation.
We believe the humanoid space long term will shape up to be similar to the auto industry - a massive market that will have multiple winners. In the next few years the market may even see a dot com type bubble with robotics companies with dozens or hundreds of companies trading at unbelievable forward PE ratios.
It’s clear that Tesla’s Optimus is currently leading the market with Figure. The Optimus currently shows the most advanced capabilities and Elon claims they will begin manufacturing them at scale by the end of this year. 5,000 this year and increasing the rate at 5-10x per year. Tesla has significant data and AI capabilities as well as manufacturing capabilities as well.
So even with Tesla’s rate of manufacturing, in 2028 they will produce 5m robots a year as an aggressive estimate. This falls fall short of the hundreds of millions of robot demand we expect to see and so many players will be able to capitalize on this market.
Figure is neck and neck with Optimus in terms of technical advancements. Brett (CEO of Figure) is an incredible leader / story teller / fundraiser, and we believe Figure has the potential to be a significant leader in the space. They are the only company to publicly demonstrate end to end neural net capabilities.
The Chinese robots like G1 and Unitree are also both impressive, particularly in their mobility and cost. However we believe they will struggle to get adoption particularly with US companies as major US manufacturers will look to partner with US based companies. We also believe that the US government will heavily restrict Chinese robotics use in America given that they do the same with Chinese telecommunications and humanoids are built with various telecommunication devices.
US companies face several restrictions on using Chinese telecommunication devices due to national security concerns:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has banned the importation, marketing, or sale of new Chinese telecommunications equipment and devices from companies like Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. This includes equipment for 5G networks, video surveillance, and other technologies deemed to pose national security risks.
This legislative measure prohibits the US government from procuring any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services as a substantial or essential component. The covered equipment includes products from Huawei, ZTE, and others like Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. This ban extends to government contractors, meaning they cannot provide services or products to the government if they use such equipment.
This act led to the creation of a program to reimburse US telecom companies for the costs associated with removing and replacing existing Chinese-made equipment from their networks. However, funding for this "rip and replace" program has been significantly less than the estimated cost needed to fully implement it.
Beyond legislative actions, there have been executive orders and regulatory changes aimed at limiting the use of Chinese telecom equipment in critical infrastructure. For instance, there's a prohibition on using Universal Service Fund money for purchasing equipment from companies on the FCC's "Covered List."
The US Department of Commerce has placed certain Chinese entities, including those related to telecommunications, on the Entity List, which significantly restricts their ability to acquire US technology or products without a license, which is often denied for national security reasons.
The FCC has stated that they will no longer approve new devices from these companies for import or sale in the US, focusing on preventing the use of such equipment in future telecommunications infrastructure.
These restrictions are part of a broader strategy to safeguard US national security interests by preventing potential espionage or sabotage through compromised telecommunications equipment. Companies need to ensure compliance with these regulations to avoid penalties or loss of government contracts, and they must also consider the challenges of removing already installed equipment from their networks.
Long term, the cost of labor will equalize across all countries with robots rapidly decreasing these costs and all manufacturers expect to have robots building other robots so we expect China’s cost advantage to dissipate.
It is rumored that OpenAI and Apple may also be working on humanoids - though we can not confirm this, we believe that they would be years behind with Apple not having the requisite AI expertise and OpenAI as of early January only having one person on their robotics team. It’s also important to note that building LLMs and humanoid foundation models are very different challenges that require significantly different architecture and training.
Boston Dynamics has been around for decades, and their robots are impressive from a mobility standpoint but they have been slow to commercialization.
There are other B/C tier players like Agility Robotics and 1x, but we are less concerned about them.
We believe Apptronik is well-positioned to compete in the space, in particular due to their partnership with Google, highly technical team, and capabilities of their new Apollo model they plan to begin shipping later this year.
Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder/CEO)
Jeff previously served as Co-Founder/Chief Strategy Officer at ThinkVoting, a simple and intuitive mobile application harnessing the power of big data to empower voters. As Apptronik's CEO, Jeff focuses on new product development and go-to-market strategy. Jeff has both his BS and MS in Technology Commercialization from UT Austin, and previously worked in commercialization at the IC2 Institute at the University.
Nick received his undergraduate, graduate and PhD degrees in electrical and computer
engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. A robotics pioneer with over a decade of experience in advanced robotics and engineering. Previously, he played a crucial role in developing NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robot and currently leads Apptronik’s technical vision and innovation.
Dr. Luis Sentis (Co-Founder/Scientific Advisor)
Luis is currently a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at UT Austin. With over 100 scientific publications, his work focuses on human-centered robotics and motion planning. He brings decades of experience to Apptronik’s strategy and research, driving the integration of cutting-edge science into practical applications. Luis holds a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
The broader team comprises backgrounds in Al and robotics across companies including: NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more.
Memo
With Google investing $150M, Apptronik has emerged as a major humanoid company. Elon Musk (tweet): “The Humanoid robot opportunity is the single biggest opportunity ever”. The robotics & humanoid sector is gaining huge traction, highlighted by Figure, (~60x return for Series A investors) who just announced their $1.5B Series C on a $38B pre-money valuation. This represents a ~12x net mark-up since their Series B last year. Given the capabilities of Apptronik’s humanoid, their exceptional technical team, and their recently inked partnership with Google and several large pilot customers, we think Apptronik has the potential to do what Figure did in the past year.
Strategic Partnership with Google: Just last month, the company announced a major strategic investment + partnership with Google, where Google will be investing $150M into the company and allocating 100+ Deep Mind engineers to work with the Apptronik team over the next several years (worth likely $100m+ as well). This is Google’s largest investment into the humanoid space, ever. Apptronik will own the hardware and Google Deepmind team will be building the robotics foundation model.
Scaling Traction: Apptronik has secured Letters of Intent for 11,000 units, representing over $800M in ARR with $100B in pipeline. The company has Mercedes, NASA, DHL, Audi, Google DeepMind, NVIDIA, Samsung, and more. Apollo’s modular design and Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model have attracted strong demand across industries– commercial pilots are already underway with 13 industry leaders, and Apptronik is actively expanding its pipeline, valued at over $100B.
Massive Problem + Growing Market: We are in the midst of a labor crisis with predictions indicating that by 2030, we will have an 85M job shortage representing $8.5T in unrealized GDP. With an aging population and many workers looking to upskill, we are looking at a massive shortage of workers in the coming years to do tens of millions of jobs that are repetitive, dangerous or boring. At the very same time, we are in the earliest innings of recognizing the sheer potential that artificial intelligence will have on our future. In the same way that large language models have boosted productivity and innovation for white collar workers, Apptronik’s humanoids have the potential to boost productivity and innovation for blue collar jobs. Apptronik’s vision is a future where humanoid robots work alongside us on a global scale, an opportunity that could both disrupt and augment the entire $42T / year labor market in a massive way.
How This Market Will Unfold: We believe the humanoid market is shaping up to be similar to that of the car manufacturing industry, where there will be multiple winners going after different sectors / use cases. Where cars replaced most modes of ground transportation, we expect humanoids to not only replace most forms of human labor, but to also expand the market by making physical labor cheaper (home assistance, elder care, construction) and addressing labor force shortages. When the market potential is the size of all human labor combined ($40T+) and in the future, robots will likely outnumber humans by as much as 3:1 - the market opportunity here will cater to many robotics companies, potentially with multiple robotics companies surpassing the trillion dollar mark. It is not a winner take all market.
The Solution: Apptronik has emerged as a major humanoid company pointing at disrupting the labor market ($40T). Apptronik’s Apollo robot is a modular, scalable, and highly capable humanoid solution designed to meet the diverse demands of the modern workforce. With advanced linear actuators, AI-driven learning systems, and swappable batteries enabling 24/7 operation, Apollo combines unmatched versatility, energy efficiency, and safety. Its adaptable design allows seamless deployment across industries like logistics, retail, and healthcare, whether as a bipedal robot, on wheeled platforms, or in stationary configurations. Focused on mass manufacturability and supply chain resiliency, Apollo is designed to advance labor automation by integrating into human-centered environments and learning from demonstration to tackle diverse use cases.
Strong Founding Team: The company was spun out of the Human Centered Robotics Lab at UT Austin with a founding team from NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more. The company is led by Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder / CEO) who was previously CSO and VP of Strategy at Apptroniks for the last eight years and holds a Master’s degree in Technology Commercialization from UT Austin. Nick Paine (CTO), with a PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from UT Austin, brings over a decade of robotics expertise and was instrumental in developing NASA’s Valkyrie humanoid robot. Dr. Luis Sentis (Scientific Advisor), an Associate Professor at UT Austin with over 100 scientific publications, provides strategic guidance with his extensive expertise in human-centered robotics and dynamic control. The broader team comprises backgrounds in Al and robotics across various industry leaders including NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more.
Why We Think This is a Good Deal: We are purchasing preferred shares at $14.10 PPS, which is ~5% premium to the recently closed $350M Series A on $1.4B pre-money valuation. Given the capabilities of Apptronik’s humanoid, their exceptional technical team, and their recently inked partnership with Google and several large pilot customers, we think Apptronik has the potential to do what Figure did in the past year.
Strong Co-Investors: Apptronik just closed an oversubscribed $350M Series A with Google investing $150M ($90M now / $60M upon delivery of next gen Apollo), Capital Factory investing $100M, B Capital investing $50M w/ Howard Morgan joining the board.
We are in the midst of a labor crisis with predictions indicating that by 2030, we will have an 85M job shortage representing $8.5T in unrealized GDP. With an aging population and many workers looking to upskill, we are looking at a massive shortage of workers in the coming years to do tens of millions of jobs in just about every major industry. At the very same time, we are in the earliest stages of recognizing the sheer potential that artificial intelligence will have on our future. In the same way that large language models have boosted productivity and innovation for white collar workers, Apptronik’s humanoids have the potential to boost productivity and innovation for blue collar jobs. Apptronik’s vision is a future where humanoid robots work alongside us on a global scale, an opportunity that could both disrupt and augment the entire $30T / year labor market in a massive way.
The economics for humanoid robot companies are absurd. While we expect there to be billions of robots (like there are cars, computers, cell phones, people), selling just 1 million robots in a year at an average cost of $50k would equate to $50 billion in revenue. Compare this to Palantir which has $3b in annualized revenue and trades at a $250b valuation. Even at a 10x rev multiple the enterprise value would be $500 billion. Eventually we expect humanoid companies to scale to tens of millions of hundreds of millions in annual production capacity. Robots can work 24/7/365 with no need to pay health insurance, bonuses, other expenses humans require. So in the next few years we expect these efficiency improvements to allow customers to receive great value for robots priced at $50-100k, and long term for robots to settle below $30k once manufacturing can meet demand.
Apptronik is building scalable, versatile humanoid robots capable of addressing labor shortages across various industries and disrupting the labor market ($40T).
Apptronik’s Apollo robot is a modular, scalable, and highly capable humanoid solution designed to meet the diverse demands of the modern workforce. With advanced linear actuators, AI-driven learning systems, and swappable batteries enabling 24/7 operation, Apollo combines unmatched versatility, energy efficiency, and safety. Its adaptable design allows seamless deployment across industries like logistics, retail, and healthcare, whether as a bipedal robot, on wheeled platforms, or in stationary configurations. Focused on mass manufacturability and supply chain resiliency, Apollo is positioned as a revolutionary force in labor automation, seamlessly integrating into human-centered environments and learning from demonstration to tackle diverse use cases.
Apptronik’s actuators also offer exceptional energy efficiency, allowing longer operational periods. For instance, Apollo supports four hours of work per battery, with swappable batteries enabling continuous operation. This contrasts with competitors requiring extended charging times. Apollo’s modular design and 55-pound payload capacity further enhance flexibility and performance, allowing it to handle tasks requiring both strength and precision.
The company is also advancing a robust AI strategy, developing foundational models based on open-source technologies and partnering with leading AI providers. This enables real-time learning from human demonstrations, continually improving the robots’ capabilities.
Apptronik’s hardware architecture provides a significant supply chain advantage. By using off-the-shelf components, the company reduces manufacturing costs and enhances scalability. The modular design simplifies maintenance, as individual actuators can be serviced independently, further reducing downtime and costs.
By combining advanced actuator technology, energy efficiency, modularity, and intelligent AI integration, Apptronik has the potential to lead the humanoid robotics industry. Its vision of safer, more efficient, and adaptable robots capable of performing diverse tasks—particularly those humans are less willing to do—establishes it as a key innovator in the future of work and automation.
Apptronik’s Apollo, is a humanoid robot designed to be a scalable and commercially-viable general-purpose robot. Standing 5’8”, 160 pounds, Apollo features a 55-pound payload capacity and operates with a modular, swappable battery system enabling up to 24/7 runtime. Fully electric and equipped with cutting-edge linear actuators for superior energy efficiency, Apollo will bring together the dexterity of the human form and cutting edge AI to go beyond single-function robots and lend support across manufacturing, logistics, warehousing, and retail.
Apptronik’s development strategy focuses on creating humanoid robots that combine advanced hardware, scalable production, and robust safety standards to tackle real-world challenges. Apollo, the flagship robot, features a proprietary linear actuator for exceptional energy efficiency, modularity, and affordability, with a target price under $50,000. Its AI-driven control system enables autonomous operation in dynamic environments, adapting to new tasks through real-time learning and human demonstration. Designed for mass manufacturability and supply chain optimization, Apollo scales efficiently to meet the needs of industries like logistics, healthcare, and retail. This innovative approach positions Apptronik as a leader in robotics, redefining human-robot interaction and unlocking transformative opportunities for businesses and consumers.
The GTM strategy focuses on securing partnerships with leading companies across diverse sectors, targeting industries such as logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, and retail. The company has initiated discussions with multiple Fortune 500 organizations and is actively running 13 pilot programs with top-tier partners, including Mercedes, NASA, Google DeepMind, and NVIDIA.
In the near term, Apptronik aims to refine Apollo’s capabilities through these pilot deployments, iterating on feedback from key customer use cases to ensure readiness for full-scale commercial deployment within the next 1-2 years. With LOIs for nearly 6,900 robots and a robust $100B pipeline, Apptronik anticipates finalizing additional high-profile agreements in early Q1 2025. This strategic approach positions the company to accelerate adoption across critical industries and solidify its leadership in the rapidly growing humanoid robotics market.
There are 4 key stages to commercial deployment that will be the focus of these first 2-3 customer engagements:
In short, Apptronik is intentionally limiting pilot engagements to a select few high-priority customers to avoid resource strain and ensure optimal outcomes. Early pilots are focused on straightforward, high-impact use cases, avoiding complex tasks that require extensive dexterity. With nearly 6,900 units already under LOI and a potential $1B+ revenue opportunity with just 5% workforce replacement at pilot companies, Apptronik is well-positioned to transform the labor market through scalable humanoid robotics.
Apptronik employs a Robotics-as-a-Service (RaaS) model to provide humanoid robots for applications such as logistics and warehousing. Under this model, customers deploy Apollo robots in their facilities and pay a recurring fee based on usage. This approach generates predictable revenue and fosters long-term customer partnerships.
The RaaS offering includes maintenance, software updates, and hardware optimization, ensuring Apollo operates at peak performance while minimizing downtime. By pricing Apollo at an initial discount to human labor costs (around $25/hour) with significant cost reductions projected, Apptronik makes automation an appealing solution for labor-intensive tasks.
With long-term gross margins approaching 70% and the potential to undercut human labor costs by up to 50%, Apptronik’s RaaS model accelerates adoption across industries. This scalable approach enables the company to pursue significant revenue opportunities to revolutionize work and automation.
We believe the humanoid space long term will shape up to be similar to the auto industry - a massive market that will have multiple winners. In the next few years the market may even see a dot com type bubble with robotics companies with dozens or hundreds of companies trading at unbelievable forward PE ratios.
It’s clear that Tesla’s Optimus is currently leading the market with Figure. The Optimus currently shows the most advanced capabilities and Elon claims they will begin manufacturing them at scale by the end of this year. 5,000 this year and increasing the rate at 5-10x per year. Tesla has significant data and AI capabilities as well as manufacturing capabilities as well.
So even with Tesla’s rate of manufacturing, in 2028 they will produce 5m robots a year as an aggressive estimate. This falls fall short of the hundreds of millions of robot demand we expect to see and so many players will be able to capitalize on this market.
Figure is neck and neck with Optimus in terms of technical advancements. Brett (CEO of Figure) is an incredible leader / story teller / fundraiser, and we believe Figure has the potential to be a significant leader in the space. They are the only company to publicly demonstrate end to end neural net capabilities.
The Chinese robots like G1 and Unitree are also both impressive, particularly in their mobility and cost. However we believe they will struggle to get adoption particularly with US companies as major US manufacturers will look to partner with US based companies. We also believe that the US government will heavily restrict Chinese robotics use in America given that they do the same with Chinese telecommunications and humanoids are built with various telecommunication devices.
US companies face several restrictions on using Chinese telecommunication devices due to national security concerns:
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has banned the importation, marketing, or sale of new Chinese telecommunications equipment and devices from companies like Huawei, ZTE, Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. This includes equipment for 5G networks, video surveillance, and other technologies deemed to pose national security risks.
This legislative measure prohibits the US government from procuring any equipment, system, or service that uses covered telecommunications equipment or services as a substantial or essential component. The covered equipment includes products from Huawei, ZTE, and others like Hytera, Hikvision, and Dahua. This ban extends to government contractors, meaning they cannot provide services or products to the government if they use such equipment.
This act led to the creation of a program to reimburse US telecom companies for the costs associated with removing and replacing existing Chinese-made equipment from their networks. However, funding for this "rip and replace" program has been significantly less than the estimated cost needed to fully implement it.
Beyond legislative actions, there have been executive orders and regulatory changes aimed at limiting the use of Chinese telecom equipment in critical infrastructure. For instance, there's a prohibition on using Universal Service Fund money for purchasing equipment from companies on the FCC's "Covered List."
The US Department of Commerce has placed certain Chinese entities, including those related to telecommunications, on the Entity List, which significantly restricts their ability to acquire US technology or products without a license, which is often denied for national security reasons.
The FCC has stated that they will no longer approve new devices from these companies for import or sale in the US, focusing on preventing the use of such equipment in future telecommunications infrastructure.
These restrictions are part of a broader strategy to safeguard US national security interests by preventing potential espionage or sabotage through compromised telecommunications equipment. Companies need to ensure compliance with these regulations to avoid penalties or loss of government contracts, and they must also consider the challenges of removing already installed equipment from their networks.
Long term, the cost of labor will equalize across all countries with robots rapidly decreasing these costs and all manufacturers expect to have robots building other robots so we expect China’s cost advantage to dissipate.
It is rumored that OpenAI and Apple may also be working on humanoids - though we can not confirm this, we believe that they would be years behind with Apple not having the requisite AI expertise and OpenAI as of early January only having one person on their robotics team. It’s also important to note that building LLMs and humanoid foundation models are very different challenges that require significantly different architecture and training.
Boston Dynamics has been around for decades, and their robots are impressive from a mobility standpoint but they have been slow to commercialization.
There are other B/C tier players like Agility Robotics and 1x, but we are less concerned about them.
We believe Apptronik is well-positioned to compete in the space, in particular due to their partnership with Google, highly technical team, and capabilities of their new Apollo model they plan to begin shipping later this year.
Jeff Cardenas (Co-Founder/CEO)
Jeff previously served as Co-Founder/Chief Strategy Officer at ThinkVoting, a simple and intuitive mobile application harnessing the power of big data to empower voters. As Apptronik's CEO, Jeff focuses on new product development and go-to-market strategy. Jeff has both his BS and MS in Technology Commercialization from UT Austin, and previously worked in commercialization at the IC2 Institute at the University.
Nick received his undergraduate, graduate and PhD degrees in electrical and computer
engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. A robotics pioneer with over a decade of experience in advanced robotics and engineering. Previously, he played a crucial role in developing NASA's Valkyrie humanoid robot and currently leads Apptronik’s technical vision and innovation.
Dr. Luis Sentis (Co-Founder/Scientific Advisor)
Luis is currently a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at UT Austin. With over 100 scientific publications, his work focuses on human-centered robotics and motion planning. He brings decades of experience to Apptronik’s strategy and research, driving the integration of cutting-edge science into practical applications. Luis holds a PhD and MS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University.
The broader team comprises backgrounds in Al and robotics across companies including: NASA, NVIDIA, General Electric, Fetch Robotics, Fox Robotics, Morgan Stanley, Verizon, and more.