Agility Robotics, the developer of humanoid robots designed to work in warehouses and factories, intends to become a publicly listed company through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special purpose acquisition company led by Michael Klein. The deal values Agility at approximately $2.5 billion and is expected to raise more than $620 million in gross proceeds, making it, according to the information provided, the largest fundraising transaction in the history of the humanoid robotics sector.
The deal has not yet closed; it still requires shareholder approval and review by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and is expected to be completed later this year. If completed, Agility will become the first company fully dedicated to humanoid robotics to have its shares traded on public markets, giving individual investors direct exposure to a sector that has primarily been available to large venture capital funds.
Listing Amid a Massive Funding Wave
The move comes as the humanoid robotics market experiences a major influx of capital. AI2 Robotics, based in Shenzhen, raised approximately $735 million at a valuation of nearly $3 billion. Apptronik also closed a $935 million funding round at a valuation exceeding $5.5 billion, while Figure AI announced that it had raised $1 billion in a Series C round at a valuation of $39 billion.
However, Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, adopted a more cautious tone. She said the choice of the SPAC route was tied to the company's first-mover advantage as the first company of its kind to pursue a public listing, as well as its need to finance increased production at its 70,000-square-foot facility in Salem, Oregon, and fulfill existing customer orders.
Booked Revenue and a Robots-as-a-Service Model
Agility was founded in 2015 as a spinout from Oregon State University, and says it has more than $300 million in multiyear booked revenue, representing approximately 1,000 robots under a “robots-as-a-service” model. Under this model, customers pay a monthly fee rather than purchasing the machines outright.
Customers include GXO Logistics, Amazon, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre. According to Johnson, the customers on the company's list have been evaluated and have actual deployment plans that go beyond the proof-of-concept stage.
Digit Designed for Industrial Environments
The Digit robot stands approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs around 160 pounds. It was designed to move heavy objects within spaces created by humans. Its reverse-bending knees, which resemble bird legs, help it reach from floor level to high shelves without its knees colliding with warehouse shelving. Its hands, which have thumbs and two fingers on each hand, are designed to grip heavy plastic containers even when their contents shift during transport.
Johnson describes the company as being agnostic toward any particular large language model, using models including Claude and Gemini to process the semantic layer—that is, to convert general instructions into robot behavior. In a recent test, Digit was able to assess different types of waste on the floor, sort it, and place it in the appropriate containers after receiving a general instruction to clean the area, including classifying bubble wrap as non-recyclable.
Focus on Safety and Delaying Homes
Agility believes its primary advantage lies in the robot's physical layer, including balance, movement, and manipulation, as well as data it has collected from more than a decade of real-world deployments. The company also considers safety a differentiating factor, because operating robots inside customer facilities requires meeting industrial safety certification requirements for electrical systems, components, and software.
Johnson does not expect humanoid robots to enter homes soon; she estimated that it will take more than 10 years. Warehouses and factories, despite their complexity, contain corridors, equipment, and workflows that are more predictable, while homes are chaotic and conditions change because of animals, children, visitors, and objects placed in unexpected locations.
The company does not rule out entering the home market in the future, but it is currently focused on warehouses, amid growing numbers of retiring workers and younger workers' reluctance to take jobs that require physical effort. Johnson said that more than one million jobs in these fields in the United States are vacant because they are too difficult to fill.