Digit Robot has 9 factories and is going public

Agility Robotics’ humanoid Digit robot is deployed at nine customer locations in the manufacturing and logistics sectors including Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, GXO Logistics, Schaeffler, and Mercado Libre. Agility Robotics has over $300M in multi-year contracts already secured. This is the background for their recent announcement to go public through a SPAC merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI for a $2.5 billion valuation, raising over $620M.

1Why these aren't demo robots

Humanoid robots have been hyped for years now based on some awesome demonstrations, but few real world deployments. Agility Robotics’ humanoid Digit robot is actually being used by Toyota, GXO, and Mercado Libre, with over $300M in orders. Humanoid robots are now real, with revenue and customers, and the company behind them has gone public.

2The deal and what the money goes toward

The SPAC deal raises over $620M, with $200M coming from new and existing institutional investors. Agility has investments from Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. The money will be used to ramp up production of the new Digit v5, to fill the backlog of orders they already have, and to serve the 30+ companies evaluating Digit. The company’s CEO Peggy Johnson has emphasized that this isn’t about proving technology, but scaling — how quickly can they ramp up production? Not if Digit can do the job, but how many can they make?

3AI is why this is possible

Digit runs in a factory environment that wasn’t built for robots — an environment built for people, with irregular geometry, lighting conditions, and moving objects. Navigating that environment in real time requires AI to identify objects, plan paths, and react to surprises. The same advances in AI that led to huge leaps in language model performance in 2023 and 2024 also powered the development of robots like Digit for use in real factories.

It’s especially interesting that Amazon is an investor in Agility, since they’ve invested heavily in automating their warehouses, and Digit is now being used by Toyota to solve real labor shortage issues on their production line. Nvidia is another key player, providing access to the GPU ecosystem that powers Digit’s perception and planning capabilities. They’re not just investors — they’re partners who provide critical infrastructure for Digit.

4What the IPO signals

This marks a turning point for humanoid robotics as an asset class. Instead of investing in an idea, you’re investing in a real company with revenue and customers. Digit v5 might live up to the hype and the stock price might hold, but either way, it doesn’t change the reality that humanoid robots are in Toyota factories right now, and the company that put them there has opened the door to public markets with real orders.