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Agility's new Digit 5 robot has $300M in orders - but there's a catch. Agility Robotics' Digit 5 humanoid is designed to work alongside people in factories and warehouses without traditional physical safety barriers. Image: Agility Robotics Agility Robotics unveiled Digit 5 with $300 million in orders, new human-safety features and a 2027 launch, but filings reveal key buyer caveats. Sep 16, 2026 Humanoid robots are moving closer to sharing the factory floor with people instead of operating behind protective barriers. Agility Robotics unveiled Digit 5 on Tuesday, a 5-foot-11-inch, 284-pound humanoid designed to work alongside employees in manufacturing and warehouse environments. The company says it already has more than $300 million in multi-year orders, with early access planned for the first half of 2027. The bigger test is whether Digit 5 can deliver that promise at commercial scale. Securities filings show the headline order figure is heavily concentrated in one customer agreement, while Agility is still operating at a substantial loss and international safety standards for industrial humanoids are continuing to develop. "You cannot put 150 robots into a warehouse where every one of them has to be surrounded by a 10-by-20 plexiglass set of walls," Daniel Diez, Agility's chief business officer, told Bloomberg. Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics, framed the hardware shift around hard commercial feedback gathered from more than 65,000 operational hours with Digit 4 across companies like Amazon, GXO Logistics, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada. "Digit 5 is removing a major barrier to scaling humanoid robots in industrial environments," Johnson said. "We built it to the exact requirements our customers gave us after three years of Digit 4 working on their production floors." A ground-up industrial redesign. Agility discarded the ostrich-like, backward-bending knees of previous models for forward-facing legs powered by proprietary cycloidal actuators. The design allows the robot to squat lower and repeatedly lift up to 50 pounds, matching OSHA single-person lift limits. Safety is built around multiple layers. The company says multimodal sensors monitor for people around the robot, visual and audio signals communicate its intended movements, and an independent safety controller runs separately from the main compute system. If someone enters its path unexpectedly, Digit 5 can stop, lower itself into a seated position, and power down its motors to reduce the risk of a fall. The machine also addresses operational downtime through a sharp charging shift: a 90-minute operating battery charges in nine minutes, enabling more than 20 hours of daily uptime. More must-read AI coverage. Agility still has to prove the economics. While Agility positions Digit 5 for early access in the first half of 2027 and general availability by late 2027, the company faces steep financial hurdles. Agility is going public via a merger with Churchill Capital Corp. XI at a $2.5 billion valuation, yet regulatory filings reveal it generated just $1.78 million in net sales in 2025 alongside a $140.2 million operating loss. Competition is also accelerating. Boston Dynamics is developing its electric Atlas for industrial work, while Tesla and Figure AI are pursuing their own commercial humanoid programs. For customers, that makes Digit 5 more than a robotics technology bet. Buyers also have to judge whether Agility can manufacture, deploy, service, and support fleets at the scale implied by its order book. The realities behind the order book. Agility's headline $300 million backlog represents a watershed validation for enterprise robotics, but securities disclosures reveal critical nuances IT leaders and operations executives must weigh: * Customer concentration: S-4 filings disclose that the $300 million figure stems from a single customer agreement for 1,000 robots over three years, categorized as a "related party" transaction tied to an entity with close corporate links. * The cost-per-floor equation: An illustrative five-year total cost of ownership approaches $400,000 per robot - covering a $200,000 unit cost, $20,000 deployment fee, and $36,000 annual maintenance fee. Operating under a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model at roughly $8,500 monthly, Digit 5 must reliably replace roughly 2.5 human shifts each day to justify its capital expense against legacy, fixed automation. * Regulatory lag: While Digit 5 leverages ANSI and ISO draft frameworks, official international safety standards (ISO 25785-1) remain unratified, meaning early adopters will shoulder initial site-by-site compliance burdens. Digit 5's biggest advance may ultimately be less about walking, lifting or battery life than whether humanoid robots can safely move out from behind barriers and become ordinary pieces of industrial equipment. For prospective buyers, however, the decision is not simply whether the robot can do the work. Agility still has to demonstrate that Digit 5 can deliver its promised uptime and safety performance at fleet scale. At the same time, customers need to compare its deployment and service costs against human labor and established automation. The $300 million order book gives Agility a significant commercial test. What happens when those robots reach real production floors will show whether Digit 5 can turn humanoid robotics from a pilot project into repeatable industrial infrastructure. Other news: China's GEAIR 2.0 humanoid robot can pollinate tomato flowers in under 10 seconds, combining AI, robotics, and gene editing to automate labor-intensive crop breeding. Aminu Abdullahi is a B2C and B2B technology and finance writer with more than six years of experience covering enterprise IT, cybersecurity, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, fintech, business software, and emerging technologies. He has written for a wide range of technical and business audiences, from IT professionals and cybersecurity leaders to small business owners, executives, and technology buyers. His work has appeared in publications including: TechRepublic eWEEK Channel Insider Geekflare Enterprise Networking Planet eSecurity Planet CIO Insight Webopedia With a background in computer science, Aminu specializes in translating complex technical subjects into clear, practical, and accessible content. His writing helps readers understand emerging technologies, evaluate business software, strengthen cybersecurity strategies, and make more informed decisions about technology investments. Across his work, Aminu focuses on the real-world impact of technology, connecting technical innovation with business value, operational efficiency, security, and long-term digital transformation.

Boston Dynamics, the Hyundai-owned robotics company, is unlikely to pursue an IPO in 2027, a senior Hyundai executive said. The company remains unprofitable and has yet to deploy its Atlas humanoid robot at scale. Hyundai acquired a controlling stake in Boston Dynamics in 2021 and purchased SoftBank's roughly 10% stake in July, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. The deal was valued at approximately 500 billion won ($371 million). A filing by Hyundai Glovis, which holds about 11% of Boston Dynamics, revealed the robotics firm posted a 2025 loss of 528.4 billion won ($391 million). Cumulative losses since 2021 have reached nearly 1.7 trillion won ($1.26 billion). Boston Dynamics currently sells its Stretch robot for warehouse applications.

Dynamic Creatures emerges from stealth to launch new category of mobile, interactive character robots for hospitality and entertainment. 08/09/2026 Founded by former Boston Dynamics, Google, and Robotics and AI Institute leaders, company launches with an official Boston Dynamics partnership and major theme park engagement BOSTON, Sept. 08, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Dynamic Creatures, a robotics company designing and building interactive character robots for entertainment and hospitality brands, today emerged from stealth. The company is creating a new category of mobile characters that move naturally through guest environments, understand the context of an interaction and respond in real time. As Boston Dynamics' official entertainment and hospitality partner, the company is already working with a large theme park and retailer to develop guest-facing character experiences designed to feel personal, attentive, and memorable. Dynamic Creatures was co-founded by CEO Marc Theermann, former chief strategy officer at Boston Dynamics and a former senior leader at Google, and chief technology officer Farbod Farshidian, a globally recognized robotics researcher and former research leader at the Robotics and AI Institute. At Boston Dynamics, Theermann helped transform the research lab into a global commercial robotics business and built the go-to-market infrastructure to deploy and service advanced robotic systems at scale. Farshidian has been a leading contributor to learning-based control in robotics, with research advancing agile humanoid behavior for Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot, high-speed quadrupedal movement, and the transfer of complex skills from simulation to real-world machines. "At Boston Dynamics, I saw what becomes possible when advanced robotics moves from breakthrough research to reliable commercial systems," said Theermann. "We founded Dynamic Creatures to bring that capability into guest-facing environments. Our characters do more than perform for a crowd. They can respond to an individual and create small moments of wonder that people remember." Dynamic Creatures offers character-based experiences built on Boston Dynamics and other systems, as well as fully original robots created for a specific brand, environment or story. Across both models, the company integrates advanced robotics with character design, adaptive behavior and real-time guest interaction. Dynamic Creatures is establishing a new category between fixed animatronics and task-oriented service robots. Most hospitality robots are designed to complete functional tasks such as guidance, information and telepresence. Traditional stationary animatronics, meanwhile, are generally programmed to perform for a crowd. Dynamic Creatures' mobile characters are designed for face-to-face engagement, allowing them to understand the context of an encounter and respond to an individual guest rather than follow a predetermined sequence. Dynamic Creatures is also pleased to announce SnowJay: its integrated AI and robotics platform which serves as the operating system for its interactive characters. It combines advanced robotics, learning-based control, real-time perception, behavioral programming, character design, and costuming. This enables characters to move naturally through demanding commercial environments and adapt their behavior to the people, activity and context around them. "Robust and fluid movement, perception and behavior have to work as one system for a character to engage naturally in the physical world," said Farshidian. "SnowJay brings those capabilities together, combining reliable robotic platforms with adaptive intelligence so each character can understand its surroundings and respond in a way that fits the person, place and moment." Dynamic Creatures characters built on existing robotics platforms can be deployed in months, significantly reducing the development timelines associated with traditional custom character builds. Leasing models for platform-based characters give operators a more flexible path to introducing new experiences without a large upfront capital investment. Dynamic Creatures also designs fully original robots around each project's brand, environment, story and creative requirements. Dynamic Creatures is backed by a mix of U.S. and European institutional investors including Eniac Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Heliad, Sunshine Lake and BlueGrass Ventures, along with strategic angel investors Marc Raibert and Lukas Ziegler. "Dynamic Creatures is opening an important new frontier for advanced robotics," said Amanda McMaster, Interim CEO of Boston Dynamics. "As our official entertainment and hospitality partner, the company is combining proven robotic platforms with character design, adaptive behavior and real-time interaction to create experiences the market has not had access to before. Marc and Farbod bring the rare combination of commercial and technical expertise required to turn that vision into compelling, guest-facing systems." From its new Boston headquarters, Dynamic Creatures is initially serving theme parks and other location-based entertainment venues, hotels and resorts, casinos, museums, cultural institutions, cruise ships and live venues. Future applications may include luxury retail and automotive brand experience centers, with potential uses ranging from roaming entertainment and brand ambassadors to concierge guidance and personalized visitor experiences. About Dynamic Creatures Dynamic Creatures designs and builds interactive character robots for some of the world's leading entertainment and hospitality brands. From fully custom creations to character-based extensions of advanced robotics platforms, its robots are built to engage, respond in real time, and create moments that are personal, attentive, and memorable. Each Dynamic Creature moves naturally, interacts with guests, and goes well beyond the limits of fixed animatronics, turning everyday encounters into moments of wonder. As Boston Dynamics' official entertainment and hospitality partner, Dynamic Creatures brings brand and character experiences into the physical world for hotels, resorts, attractions and entertainment venues worldwide. 02/07/2026 18/08/2014 13/05/2026 27/04/2026 30/04/2026