Humanoid robots have become a new battlefield for the world's technology giants.
Silicon Valley, as the forefront of global scientific and technological innovation, has set off a wave of "All In" for humanoid robots. From Tesla and Amazon to Microsoft, Meta and Apple, these industry giants are gearing up and betting heavily to start a fierce race for humanoid robotics.
So, which of the giants in Silicon Valley are involved in humanoid robots? What kind of strategic plan do they have? This article will take you to find out.
Tesla
In August 2021, Tesla first announced the development of the humanoid robot Optimus, and in 2022 released a prototype. At Tesla's AI Day in September 2022, the Optimus prototype was unveiled, showcasing its basic functions such as moving boxes, watering flowers, and working in a gigafactory. In December 2023, Tesla Optimus Gen 2 was released, a new version that brings better balance, greater mobility, and handling of fragile items. In 2024, Tesla showed off the latest progress in its humanoid robot, Optimus, to walk on difficult terrain. Tesla expects to begin mass production of the Optimus in 2026 and plans to deliver it to external customers by 2027.
Figure
Figure is currently one of the star companies in the global humanoid robot industry. Founded in 2022 by Brett Adcock, the company is developing a general-purpose humanoid robot called "Figure 02" that can complete a wide range of human tasks, from warehouse work to housework. Figure AI's key partners include Microsoft, Nvidia, and OpenAI, though the partnership recently ended due to Figure's "major breakthrough in end-to-end robotics AI." Currently, Figure's humanoid robot is being tested on BMW's car assembly line. In addition, Adcock recently revealed that the company has signed a second commercial client, described as "one of the largest companies in the United States". Figure expects to deliver 100,000 robots over the next four years.
Amazon
Amazon's layout in the field of humanoid robots mainly revolves around its huge logistics and warehouse automation needs. Through multiple means such as acquisitions, cooperation and technology research and development, Amazon has gradually promoted the application and commercialization of humanoid robot technology, especially in improving work efficiency and reducing labor costs, and has achieved remarkable results. In the second half of 2023, Amazon deployed Digit, a bipedal robot developed by Agility Robotics, in its warehouses. Capable of collaborating with human workers to perform tasks such as carrying empty containers, the robot is designed to accommodate complex warehouse environments. Digit's flexible walking ability allows it to move smoothly through the working environment of human workers and assist with repetitive, low-risk tasks.
Nvidia
At GTC24, NVIDIA unveiled the GR00T, a universal base model for humanoid robots, and Jetson Thor, a new humanoid robot computer. The core functions of the GR00T include natural language understanding, behavior imitation, and multimodal learning, which can effectively change the way humanoid robots learn the real world. Capable of performing complex tasks and interacting with humans and machines safely and naturally, Jetson Thor has a modular architecture optimized for performance, power consumption, and size, and can be easily integrated into various types of humanoid robots, supporting the overall performance of the robot while greatly simplifying the design and development of humanoid robots. Jetson Thor also brings AI capabilities that can power humanoid robots.
Meta
On February 15, according to Bloomberg, Meta is increasing its investment in the field of robotics, planning to develop its own humanoid robot hardware, and has set up a robot research and development team in the hardware department of its Reality Labs. The team is headed by Marc Whitten, the former CEO of General Motors' Cruise autonomous driving division, who also plans to hire 100 engineers this year. According to people familiar with the matter, Meta will take the lead in breaking through the research and development of humanoid robot hardware and cooperate with some manufacturers, and will initially focus on daily housework in the home scene. At present, Meta is in contact with leading humanoid robot companies such as Unitree Technology and Figure AI to explore the possibility of cooperation.
Apple
On February 13, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple supply chain analyst at Tianfeng International Securities, disclosed on X, Apple is exploring humanoid and non-humanoid robots for its future smart home ecosystem, but these products are still in the early proof-of-concept (POC) stage, "Apple's robot mass production may not start until 2028 or later." Kuo pointed out that supply chain research shows that Apple places more emphasis on how users interact with the robot rather than whether the design is humanoid, which means that sensors and software technology will play a central role. This is in line with the work of the Apple team's recent paper "Elegance: Expressive and Functional Motion Design for Non-Humanoid Robots". Apple's machine learning research team demonstrated a smart desk lamp robot that can interact with people through gestures, voice, projection, etc.
In December last year, Google DeepMind announced that it would work with Apptronik to jointly develop a new generation of humanoid robots to meet the complex operational challenges of dynamic reality environments. Specifically, Apptronik will work with Google's Agentic AI, Gemini 2.0 Pro, and the AI robotics team within DeepMind. In Google's previously released Gemini 2.0 video, there is already a picture of Apollo playing stacking music. On February 13, Apptronik completed a $350 million Series A financing (about 2.554 billion yuan), co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory, with Google participating, the company's humanoid robot directly benchmarked against Tesla's Optimus (Optimus), and cooperated with Nvidia and NASA.
In addition, Microsoft is also investing in humanoid robots. Looking forward to the future, the development prospects of humanoid robots are limitless. This competition ignited in Silicon Valley is not only the United States' investment in the humanoid robot industry, but also the prelude to the transformation of the global humanoid robot industry. With the continuous R&D and investment of enterprises, the bottleneck of humanoid robot technology will be broken through one by one, and the application scenarios will continue to expand.
Whether it is going into ordinary people's homes to undertake housework, or showing their skills in professional fields such as industrial manufacturing and medical care, humanoid robots will profoundly change the life and production mode of human beings. The winner of this competition will not only leave a strong mark in the history of science and technology, but also lead human society to stride towards a new era of intelligent era. Let's wait and see what the possibilities of humanoid robots can be.