Humanoid Robotics Funding Explodes: 300% YoY Increase as Factories Prepare for Robot Workers

The humanoid robotics sector has gone from science fiction to the hottest investment thesis in venture capital in less than 18 months. Funding for humanoid robot companies surged 300% year-over-year in 2025, with the momentum accelerating into 2026. Apptronik raised $935 million in January, Skild AI closed a staggering $1.4 billion round for its universal robot brain, and Figure AI's latest fundraise valued the company at $39 billion — more than most automakers. The thesis is simple and audacious: humanoid robots will become the most common type of worker on factory floors within a decade.

The Funding Tsunami

Apptronik's $935 million Series B, led by B Capital Group and Google Ventures with participation from Mercedes-Benz, is the largest single round ever raised by a humanoid robotics company. The Austin-based startup's Apollo robot is already operating in BMW and Mercedes assembly plants in pilot programs, performing tasks like heavy lifting, parts transport, and quality inspection alongside human workers. The new funding will scale manufacturing from hundreds to tens of thousands of units by 2028.

Skild AI's $1.4 billion raise targets an even more ambitious goal: building a "universal robot brain" — a foundation model for physical intelligence that can be deployed across any humanoid robot platform. Think of it as GPT for the physical world. The company's approach allows robot manufacturers to focus on hardware while Skild provides the AI that enables learning, adaptation, and task generalization. Investors include SoftBank, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Jeff Bezos's personal fund.

Figure AI's Meteoric Rise

Figure AI's trajectory exemplifies the sector's explosive growth. Founded in 2022, the company was valued at $2.6 billion in early 2024. By late 2025, after demonstrating its Figure 02 robot performing complex assembly tasks at a BMW plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the valuation soared to $39 billion. The company's partnership with OpenAI — integrating advanced language models for natural human-robot interaction — has created a robot that can understand verbal instructions, explain its actions, and adapt to unexpected situations.

"We're at the iPhone moment for robotics. The hardware is capable, the AI is ready, and the economics are becoming irresistible. A humanoid robot that costs $50,000 and works 20 hours a day pays for itself in 8 months at minimum wage. Every factory in the world is doing that math right now." — CEO, Figure AI

The Manufacturing Imperative

The investment thesis is driven by demographics as much as technology. The global manufacturing sector faces a structural labor shortage of 8 million workers by 2030, driven by aging populations in China, Japan, Germany, and South Korea. Traditional industrial robots — bolted to factory floors, performing single repetitive tasks — can't fill this gap. Humanoid robots, with their ability to navigate human-designed spaces, use standard tools, and perform varied tasks, offer a fundamentally different value proposition.

Tesla's Optimus program, while less transparent than the venture-backed startups, represents the largest corporate bet in the space. Elon Musk has repeatedly stated that Optimus will eventually generate more revenue than Tesla's vehicle business. The company deployed an estimated 1,000 Optimus units in its own factories in 2025 and plans to begin external sales in late 2026 at a target price under $30,000.

China's Parallel Race

The humanoid robotics race isn't just a Silicon Valley phenomenon. China has made humanoid robots a national strategic priority, with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology targeting mass production by 2027. Unitree Robotics, UBTECH, and Fourier Intelligence are the leading Chinese players, collectively raising over $2 billion in 2025. China's advantage is manufacturing scale and cost: Chinese humanoid robots are priced 30-40% below Western equivalents, raising the prospect of a price war that could accelerate adoption globally.

What It Means for Startups and Small Business

The humanoid robotics boom is creating a massive ecosystem of adjacent opportunities. Startups are emerging in robot maintenance, training data generation, human-robot workflow design, safety certification, and insurance. For small manufacturers using tools like BizziKit to manage operations, the timeline for affordable robotic assistance is shrinking rapidly. The companies that begin planning their human-robot workflow integration now will have a significant competitive advantage when sub-$30,000 humanoid workers arrive on the market in 2027-2028.