Controls & Automation Engineer

Formic, a US manufacturing automation provider, opened a new 13,000-square-foot facility in Oakland, California on 19 August. This marks the company's first West Coast location and follows a June expansion to a 53,000-square-foot facility in Chicagoland. The Oakland site will focus on humanoid robot development and expanding Formic's automation fleet. The facility positions Formic alongside Tesla's Optimus programme and Amazon's Project Prometheus in the Bay Area's emerging physical AI sector. Formic operates under a Robots-as-a-Service model, requiring no capital expenditure from manufacturers. The company uses proprietary AI models called Cortex and Core for deployment and real-time operations. Founded in 2020, Formic manages what it describes as America's largest independent deployed robot fleet. The opening was attended by hundreds, including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.

Formic opens Oakland facility, anchoring humanoid and physical AI Expansion in the Bay Area alongside Tesla and Amazon. 7:00 am, PT, August 26, 2026 OAKLAND, Calif.-(BUSINESS WIRE)-August 26, 2026- Formic, a Full Service Automation provider for U.S. manufacturers, celebrated the grand opening of its new Oakland facility on August 19th. The company has taken over more than 13,000 square feet at 936 61st St., marking Formic's first West Coast location and its entry into the Bay Area, which is quickly becoming the center of gravity for physical AI, alongside efforts like Tesla's Optimus program and Amazon's Project Prometheus. A humanoid robot cuts the ribbon at Formic's Oakland facility grand opening on August 19, 2026, flanked by an industrial robot arm, as attendees look on. Hundreds of attendees joined Formic leadership for the celebration, including Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. The opening builds on Formic's long-standing Bay Area presence, which has given the company access to deep manufacturing and engineering talent in the region. Formic will direct new capital toward accelerating humanoid deployment and expanding its automation fleet across the U.S. The Oakland facility strengthens that foundation, positioning the company to grow its presence with manufacturers throughout the region. "In June, we expanded to a 53,000-square-foot production facility in Chicagoland. Less than two months later, we've set up our second robot factory and R&D center in the Bay Area," Saman Farid, Formic Founder and CEO, said. "Oakland offers a rare mix of robotics talent and early adopters of automation in the manufacturing space, and we're in good company alongside the new Tesla and Amazon facilities also driving forward progress in physical AI." A Historic Opportunity for American Manufacturing Formic was founded on the belief that technology should serve the industries that need it most. American manufacturing businesses feed us, clothe us, house us, and build the things we rely on every day. Formic is working to make robots available to those businesses and to create abundance for the communities they support. "That front line worker is our most valuable asset out there," Patrick Henson, General Manager at Masters Gallery Foods Willows, said during the opening event. "We have to protect them, and automation is the way to do it. We are going to move them to a role where they feel more valued. If you aren't automating yet, you better start thinking of it, because it's where the world is going. And Formic is ahead of it." Formic's Oakland facility is one piece of a larger footprint still to come, with plans to expand into regions beyond the Midwest and West Coast. Humanoids at the Center of Formic Expansion Where Bolingbrook marked the scale of Formic's flagship robotic fleet, from palletizing to machine tending, Oakland marks the company's next chapter: humanoid development. Every deployment, whether a palletizer on a production line or a humanoid on a shop floor, feeds data back into Cortex and Core, Formic's proprietary AI models for scoping, deployment, and real-time operation. That compounding data advantage is what has given Formic its decisive lead in physical AI, bringing it out of research labs into everyday, practical use. Formic has built and manages America's largest independent deployed robot fleet, and continues to scale robots to new use cases and tasks. "Humanoids change the calculus for what's automatable," Danijel Lolic, COO of Formic, said. "We've spent years proving the Robots-as-a-Service model works for highly complex, high-volume, specialized tasks. Oakland is where we start applying that same deployment excellence to more flexible, dynamic, high-variability tasks. This is just the beginning of what we'll announce out of this facility." The Formic Full Service Automation Model Scales with the Mission As Formic expands into humanoids and physical AI, the commitment to accessibility stays the same: no capital expenditure, one flat monthly rate, full service from deployment through ongoing maintenance, and contracted production performance. Every new system Formic brings to market ships with the same promise. Formic was founded in 2020 to make automation accessible to every U.S. manufacturer, regardless of size. That mission has not changed; what has changed is the scope of what's possible and the scale of the operation behind it. About Formic Formic was founded in 2020 to accelerate the accessibility and ease of automation across American manufacturing by delivering the positive outcomes that robotic automation enables: more capacity, consistency, and reliability; less cost, downtime, and worker safety issues. For $0 in capital investment, Formic's Full Service Automation model delivers the equipment and systems to do the job, the service and parts to keep it running, and the technology and software to measure real-time productivity and optimize performance, all for one flat monthly rate. Media Contact Brooklyn Kiosow Marketing Communications Manager [email protected]