Agile Robots raised $500 million in a SoftBank-led funding round that values the Munich-based company at $8.5 billion, the company told Reuters on November 12. Nvidia and Hitachi also participated. The company said it plans to expand in the United States and add manufacturing capacity, including in Germany.
Agile Robots’ own factory account describes humanoid production in Fürstenfeldbruck and an existing operation in Kaufbeuren that builds industrial arms and collaborative robots. It also reports more than 20,000 automation solutions deployed worldwide. That figure spans its broader business and cannot serve as a count of humanoids in service.
Follow units through the factory and into use
Reuters reported the company’s figure of up to 10,000 humanoids a year at the Fürstenfeldbruck site, including wheeled and legged models. Treat that as a capacity figure. A useful production update would report how many units came off the line in a stated period, how many passed acceptance tests, and how many customers put into service. Each figure has a different denominator. Even an annual shipment count would need a model breakdown to show how much came from each design.
For a buyer comparing a mobile robot with a fixed arm, those production totals answer only part of the question. A pilot should measure completed cycles, human interventions, and downtime on the same task over the same shift. The round gives Agile Robots more capital to scale. A like-for-like deployment record would show how the machines perform once they leave the factory.
Abdessalam Alaoui
I'm Abdessalam Alaoui, founder of Musthave.AI. I write practical guides to AI models, tools, generative media.
