Futurist > Companies creating the future > 21 top companies in the vanguard of the rise of humanoid robots
21 top companies in the vanguard of the rise of humanoid robots
By Joseph Mapue
Last updated: July 14, 2025
Living organisms tend to perpetuate their species, with humans among the most prolific. Having populated every continent on the planet, we have now gone beyond biology to replicate our form in art and engineer our physical attributes into machines.
Unsurprisingly, humanoid robots—both as a physical construct and as a concept—have been around for quite a while. The Japanese have had their vibrant mecha subculture since the 1930s. Centuries before that, Jewish tradition described golems—human-like creatures formed from clay. In 1495, Leonardo da Vinci even designed a humanoid automaton that looks like a knight in armour.
More recently, blockbuster films and franchises featuring robots—such as Star Wars, Terminator, Ex Machina and Transformers—have generated billions in box-office dollars as they spur humans to imagine living with, fighting against and even making love to robots.
But fictional robots aren’t the only humanoid machines that are making fortunes. Real-world robots built by tech companies are also cashing in on our passion for robots. In fact, the humanoid-robot market is slated to explode from US $2.1 billion in 2020 to US $7.9 billion in 2025 according to BCC Research.
Configured either as wheeled or bipedal, these humanoid products offer businesses, institutions and consumers a full range of applications: from education and entertainment to healthcare and public relations. Some companies even specialise in building robots for high-risk research, space exploration, security and sex.
Among the more prominent brands in the industry are veteran players such as Boston Dynamics and Qihan Technology as well as bold newcomers like Sanctuary AI and Figure AI. Below are insights into 21 of the most noteworthy players in the space.
Agility Robotics
As its name suggests, Agility Robotics focuses on designing and building fully articulated robots for various real-world applications. Founded in 2015, the company launched its first bipedal robot, Cassie, in 2017; followed by the more human-like Digit in 2020. Digit can walk, run, climb stairs, sense the environment and manually carry loads. Perfect as a warehouse assistant, Digit’s all-weather capabilities also enable it to serve outdoors.
Agility originally raised about US $28.8 million in its early rounds from investors such as Playground Global and ITIC. In 2023 it closed a US $150 million Series B led by DCVC and Playground, and in March 2025 it completed a further US $400 million growth round to finance RoboFab, a dedicated plant in Salem, Oregon, that will mass-produce up to 10 000 Digits per year. Since late 2023 Digit has been piloted inside Amazon fulfilment centres, giving Agility a clear path to high-volume commercial deployment.
Boston Dynamics
Founded in 1992 as the corporate spin-off of MIT’s peerless engineering legacy, Boston Dynamics develops highly mobile robots that include some of the most iconic machines ever built. Atlas, its humanoid robot, was launched in 2013 and has developed since then into a fully articulated, highly agile bipedal machine that can run, jump, dance, do somersaults and perform impressive parkour tricks. Five-feet tall and weighing around 190 lbs, the latest hydraulic Atlas became a viral sensation in 2021 and was described as ushering in a new species: Robo sapiens.
In April 2024 Boston Dynamics retired the hydraulic Atlas and unveiled a fully electric Atlas aimed squarely at industrial manipulation tasks—marking the first time Atlas technology is being productised for the factory floor. The company has also commercially released Stretch, a mobile robot that automates trailer unloading and case handling in logistics centres, and continues to scale sales of its quadruped Spot. South-Korean conglomerate Hyundai Motor Group holds an 80 % stake while Japan’s SoftBank retains the remaining 20 %.
Figure AI
Figure AI is a promising player in the humanoid-robotics field, focusing on developing robots for labour-intensive tasks in industries such as warehousing, logistics and manufacturing. Founded in 2022 in Sunnyvale, California, the company quickly gained attention for its rapid development cycle: the alpha prototype, Figure 01, appeared less than twelve months after incorporation, while the more capable Figure 02—sporting human-level dexterity in its hands—debuted in 2024.
Figure raised US $70 million in Series A financing in mid-2023. Less than a year later, in February 2024, it secured a US $524 million Series B led by Microsoft, NVIDIA, OpenAI Startup Fund, Bezos Expeditions, Parkway VC and others, valuing the firm at about US $2.6 billion. The company has signed a multiyear agreement to deploy its robots in BMW’s Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant, providing a crucial industrial proving ground for its technology.
1X (formerly Halodi Robotics)
1X is a Norwegian robotics company developing humanoid robots to assist humans in everyday tasks. Its wheeled robot EVE was designed for roles in security, healthcare and other service-oriented industries, combining gentle interaction with the strength to open heavy doors or push emergency trolleys. Building on that experience, 1X revealed NEO Beta, a biologically inspired biped for the home, now entering in-home trials with selected families.
Founded in 2014, 1X emphasises safety around people without extensive physical barriers. The company raised a US $23.5 million Series A-1 in 2023 (with participation from OpenAI) and followed up with a US $100 million Series B in January 2024 led by EQT Ventures, Samsung Next and the Norwegian sovereign fund. The new capital supports large-scale testing and manufacturing of NEO alongside continued roll-out of EVE in commercial security contracts.
Apptronik
Based in Austin, Texas, Apptronik is redefining humanoid robotics with its highly versatile robot, Apollo. Aimed at industrial and commercial use, Apollo is designed to perform collaborative tasks alongside humans in dynamic environments. Apptronik focuses on creating robots adaptable to multiple industries, from logistics and manufacturing to healthcare and hospitality, where both dexterity and heavy-lifting capabilities are required.
Formed in 2016, Apptronik has roots in the NASA Johnson Space Center, where its team originally developed robots for space exploration. The company has since attracted growing investor interest: after early support from DCVC and Capital Factory, Apptronik closed a US $172 million Series A in 2023 and a US $350 million Series B in February 2025. It has announced partnerships with Amazon, Mercedes-Benz, Walmart and Jabil to test Apollo in warehouses and automotive plants, and showcased live pallet-loading and clothes-folding demos at CES 2025.
Engineered Arts
UK-based Engineered Arts specialises in developing ultra-realistic humanoid robots for entertainment, research and public engagement. Their signature product, Ameca, is renowned for its stunningly lifelike facial expressions and interactive capabilities, making it popular for exhibitions, research labs and media productions. Ameca combines cutting-edge AI with precise engineering to create an engaging humanoid robot capable of real-time conversations and activities.
Founded in 2005, Engineered Arts has made a name for itself by pushing the boundaries of robotics with an emphasis on human-like movement and communication. In recent developments the company has integrated GPT-4o cloud conversation, improved multilingual support and added a full-torso motion pack, all showcased at Mobile World Congress 2024 and a global event-rental tour in 2025.
PAL Robotics
Formed in Barcelona in 2004, PAL Robotics introduced the first fully autonomous humanoid robot in Europe. The company’s precision-engineered machines are designed for human collaboration and can be deployed for domestic tasks as well as industrial applications. As its business model, PAL Robotics ensures that its products possess a high level of customisability to allow users to integrate a range of modular parts based on their requirements.
The company’s range includes TALOS (a 1.75 m biped that can walk, run, carry and manipulate tools of up to 6 kg in weight); ARI (a wheeled AI-enabled humanoid designed to inform and interact with humans); and TIAGo (a robot with an articulated arm and gripper useful in industrial or commercial environments). In 2024 PAL released TALOS II, upgrading the platform to ROS 2, higher payloads and force-controlled manipulation for European Horizon-funded projects in agile manufacturing.
SoftBank Robotics
SoftBank Robotics is best known for Pepper, released in 2014 as the world’s first social robot with facial-recognition technology. Mounted on wheels for mobility, the 4-foot humanoid could identify and respond appropriately to basic human emotions and converse in 15 languages. Since its launch Pepper, along with the bipedal NAO, has been adopted by thousands of organisations across retail, education, healthcare and tourism. Production of Pepper ceased in 2021 after more than 25 000 units were delivered.
SoftBank Robotics has since pivoted toward commercial cleaning and logistics. Its Whiz 2.0 autonomous vacuum is deployed in office buildings, airports and hospitals worldwide. In 2024 SoftBank established Iris Robotics, a joint venture with Japanese appliance maker Iris Ohyama, and formed a strategic partnership with AMR specialist Syrius Technology to address warehouse automation across Asia.
Shadow Robot Company
Need a hand? Shadow Robot Company has exactly what you need. Formed in 1987, the London-based firm builds highly articulated machines and systems based on the physiology and functionality of human hands. Honed and precision-engineered over the years, the firm’s products fill a niche requirement for businesses and organisations that need advanced dexterity to perform complex tasks in sensitive research, hazardous conditions or remote working environments. Shadow’s robotic hands can be built either as autonomous or tele-operated systems.
The latest DEX-EE hand, developed in collaboration with Google DeepMind, adds torque-rich joints and dense tactile sensing for in-hand manipulation research, while the Tactile Telerobot pairs the hand with a haptic exoskeleton for remote operation. Pilot projects with CERN and the German space agency DLR are exploring its use in radioactive-handling and on-orbit servicing tasks.
UBTECH Robotics
Having raised nearly a billion dollars (about US $940 million) prior to 2022, Shenzhen-based UBTECH Robotics has long pursued the mission of bringing a robot into every home and business. Its product line has ranged from STEM kits to life-size biped Walker, which famously opened doors, poured tea and danced at CES. In 2019, Fast Company named UBTECH one of its Top 20 Most Innovative Companies.
In December 2023 UBTECH listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and raised a further HK $931 million (≈ US $119 million) in a February 2025 follow-on offering. The company unveiled Walker S, pivoting the humanoid toward industrial inspection, logistics and service-robotics applications in line with China’s national embodied-AI roadmap.
Macco Robotics
Robot cashiers, bartenders and kitchen assistants are already among us. Thanks to companies like Seville-based Macco Robotics, friendly humanoid robots now work as food servers, kiosk managers and tireless preparers of food and drinks at swanky bars, cafés and restaurants around the world. Formed in 2013, Macco focuses on creative solutions for the food, beverage and hospitality industries—a value proposition that only strengthened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among Macco’s best-selling robots are Kime (a humanoid robotic kiosk that directly serves food and drinks to consumers); Cart (a wheeled autonomous platform that can prepare and serve meals and beverages on the go); and DBot (an automated mobile platform that can disinfect environments and deliver service in ultra-busy restaurants and events). In March 2025 Macco launched Kime v5 with computer-vision portion control, rolling out to airports in Madrid and venues in New York City.
Hanson Robotics
Bearing its founder’s namesake, Hanson Robotics builds human-like robots designed for emotive interactions and intelligent conversations with people. In addition to AI and speech-recognition technology, the company uses a patented material that closely resembles human skin to create machines that genuinely look, speak and act like humans. Hanson is best known for Sophia, the first robot ever to be granted citizenship (by Saudi Arabia), who continues to appear at conferences worldwide.
In 2022 Hanson launched healthcare-oriented robot Grace, geared toward elder care with a range of conversational and diagnostic abilities. Grace entered clinical pilots in Hong Kong and Seoul in 2024. Public interest in Hanson’s work surged again with the 2025 documentary My Robot Sophia, bringing new media partnerships and research collaborations.
Toyota Research Institute
One of the planet’s most recognisable and admired brands, Toyota maintains many cross-industry subsidiaries, research programmes and investments on top of its automotive business. Toyota Research Institute (TRI) is the group’s R&D enterprise focusing on AI and robotics. TRI was founded in 2016 by prominent American roboticist James Kuffner Jr. Even before TRI, Toyota had showcased musical Partner Robots that played trumpet and drums at the 2005 World EXPO in Aichi, Japan.
In 2017 Toyota introduced T-HR3, a remote-controlled humanoid that can replicate the motions of a connected operator over a 5 G link. Since 2023 TRI’s work has centred on Large Behaviour Models—robotic “foundation models” trained from thousands of human-demonstrated tasks in simulated kitchens and labs. The goal is to “amplify, not replace” workers, enabling robots to generalise across chores such as dishwashing, ingredient prep and scientific sample handling.
Tesla Optimus
More famous for electric vehicles and its charismatic CEO Elon Musk, Tesla leveraged its self-driving chip and autonomy stack to create the humanoid Optimus (formerly “Tesla Bot”), unveiled as a concept in 2021. By late 2023 the company showed Optimus Gen 2 carefully handling eggs, sorting blocks and folding shirts—milestones made possible by end-to-end neural-network control.
Musk has stated that Tesla aims to deploy 5 000 Gen 3 Optimus units in its own factories during 2025 and to release consumer versions below US $30 000 by 2026. Funding is internal, supported by Tesla’s sizeable cash flow and in-house Dojo supercomputer, which trains the robot’s vision and motion models.
Promobot
Judging by the box-office success of robot flicks like Terminator, and the popularity of humanoid machines like C-3PO and Bumblebee, the market is more than ready to embrace real-world robots designed for brand promotion. Formed in 2015, Promobot manufactures autonomous humanoid robots for service delivery in customer-facing environments. Capable of linking with a company’s existing digital systems, Promobot can act as promoter, concierge, ticket agent, security guard or medical assistant.
The firm’s newest model, Robo-C 2, introduced in 2024, features hyper-realistic silicone skin and can be customised to match a specific individual’s appearance. The platform supports 40+ languages, built-in ID scanning and payment processing, and has been deployed in malls, museums and government service centres.
Qihan Technology
Shenzhen-based Qihan Technology designs and develops a wide range of digital products, but is mostly known as a leading manufacturer of CCTV surveillance systems. It launched its first commercial robot, Sanbot Elf, at IFA 2016 in Berlin. Powered by cloud AI, the wheeled humanoid can perform tasks in education, security, retail and healthcare.
Qihan’s follow-up robots—Sanbot King Kong and Sanbot Nano—complete a portfolio that covers domestic assistants to heavy-duty patrol bots. In 2024 the company released Sanbot Nano 2.0 with Alexa integration, biometric voice ID and computer-vision stock checking, extending deployments in Chinese airports, hospitals and smart retail stores.
Sanctuary AI
Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI is pursuing the ambitious goal of “human-equivalent intelligence in general-purpose robots.” Its seventh-generation humanoid, Phoenix, stands 1.7 m tall, weighs 70 kg and features five-fingered hands with 20 degrees of freedom each. In 2024 Phoenix completed paid shifts in retail, e-commerce fulfilment and light manufacturing, remotely operated at first but increasingly transitioning to autonomous task execution using Sanctuary’s cognitive architecture.
Sanctuary has raised more than US $140 million across seed, Series A and Series B rounds, with backers including Canadian pension fund BDC, Bell Canada, Magna International, Evok Innovations and Accenture Ventures. Magna is also Sanctuary’s strategic manufacturing partner, providing automotive-grade supply-chain expertise and factory capacity for the first production run of Phoenix robots.
Unitree Robotics
Known globally for affordable quadrupeds such as the A1 and Go1, Unitree unveiled its first full-size humanoid, the H1, in mid-2023. Less than a year later, an H1 prototype clocked 3.3 m/s on a treadmill, setting an unofficial world speed record for bipedal robots. Unitree plans to price the H1 near US $90 000—far below Western rivals—leveraging its vertically integrated supply chain in Hangzhou.
The company has been profitable on dog-robot sales and therefore remains largely self-funded, but it received an undisclosed strategic investment from Sequoia China in 2024 to accelerate H1 production tooling and global safety certification.
Fourier Intelligence
Operating out of Singapore and Shanghai, Fourier Intelligence already dominates rehab robotics in Asia. Its 1.6 m, 120 kg humanoid GR-1 extends that expertise to elder-care, logistics and hospital transport. The robot can carry 50 kg, walk at 5 km/h and features an open ROS-based control architecture.
Fourier raised about US $105 million across Series C and Series D rounds in 2021–22 from Prosperity7, Saudi Aramco and Sinopharm Capital. In 2024 it began mass production of GR-1 with a 5 000-unit annual capacity, shipping pilot batches to Chinese Tier-1 hospitals and European automotive factories.
Neura Robotics
Founded in 2019 near Stuttgart, Neura Robotics builds “cognitive robots” that fuse multi-modal perception, touch sensing and cloud collaboration. Its industrial biped MIRA handles intricate assembly tasks, while the smaller 4NE-1 prototype is aimed at household chores and elder assistance.
In January 2025 Neura closed a €120 million Series B round led by Lingotto and the Volvo Cars Tech Fund—one of Europe’s largest humanoid investments to date. The financing supports a new 20 000 m² factory in Germany and joint pilot programmes with Volvo and global Tier-1 suppliers.
Xiaomi Robotics Lab
Electronics giant Xiaomi surprised observers when it revealed the 1.77 m tall CyberOne in 2022. The sleek black-and-white humanoid sports a self-developed “MiAI” voice system and a curved OLED visor for facial expressions. While still officially a research platform, CyberOne has been piloting intralogistics and inspection tasks on Xiaomi’s smartphone production lines since late 2024, providing valuable data for cost-down engineering.
Xiaomi funds the Robotics Lab internally, but executives have hinted that China’s national AI fund may support a dedicated CyberOne factory once per-unit costs fall below ¥300 000 (≈ US $42 000).
