Apptronik, a leading manufacturer of humanoid robots based in Austin, has recently announced a new pilot partnership with Jabil, a prominent American supply chain and manufacturing company. This development comes just two weeks after Apptronik secured a $350 million Series A financing round, aimed at boosting production of its Apollo robot.

This partnership with Jabil marks the second major pilot collaboration for Apptronik. It follows a previous partnership with Mercedes-Benz in March 2024, where the Apollo robot was deployed on the manufacturing floor. Although the company confirms that this partnership is still ongoing, it has yet to progress beyond the pilot stage.

The agreement with Jabil not only involves testing the Apollo robot on the factory floor but also establishes a manufacturing partnership between the two companies. Once the commercial viability of the Apollo robot is confirmed, Jabil will commence production of the robot in its own facilities. This means that, if everything goes as planned, the humanoid robot will eventually be involved in building itself.

Given the focus of the humanoid industry on manufacturing, such partnerships seem like a natural progression. However, the prospect of humanoids building humanoids is still some way off for Apptronik, with the company targeting 2026 to begin manufacturing commercial units.

In the meantime, the partnership with Jabil will involve an undisclosed number of Apollo systems performing various “simple, repetitive intralogistics and manufacturing tasks,” such as sorting and transporting parts. This real-world validation is a crucial step towards scaling the robot for manufacturing. The better the Apollo robot performs on the Jabil factory floor, the closer it will be to being integrated into a production line that will eventually include the Apollo itself.

Apptronik is one of several companies developing humanoid robots for industrial applications, including Agility, Boston Dynamics, Figure, and Tesla. Of these, only Agility has announced that its robots have been deployed beyond the initial pilot phase.

Although the competition in this nascent category is intense, Apptronik has several factors working in its favor. In addition to securing hundreds of millions in funding, the University of Texas spinoff has a decade of experience in developing humanoids, including NASA’s Valkyrie robot. Last December, Apptronik announced a partnership with Google DeepMind to develop AI for its humanoid systems.