What changed

Promised preorder window lapses

As of July 2026 the official page still reads 'Pre-orders available in 2025' — no price, no open ordering, no reported deliveries.

Launched in Shenzhen; orders pass 13,361

Three trims priced ¥119,800–¥990,000 at the Global Launch Event; deliveries promised from mid-September, sales restricted to adults.

UBTech launches the U1 — the first mass-produced lifelike companion robot

In Shenzhen, UBTech unveiled the UWORLD U1 — a silicone-skinned, full-size humanoid built for companionship, not the factory floor. Male (183 cm) and female (168 cm) bodies, 88 degrees of freedom, on-device emotion-aware AI, and encrypted local memory. It is the first lifelike companion sold at scale: three trims from ¥119,800 (~$17,650) to ¥990,000, adults only, with 13,000-plus preorders on JD.com before a price was even announced. The milestone isn't the tech — it's that you can order one.

New CEO, new strategy

Former MDA chief Daniel Friedmann took over as the company pivoted toward scaling existing technology rather than proving out the humanoid.

BMW puts Figure 03 on the line at Spartanburg

BMW is moving Figure 03 into live logistics work at its Spartanburg plant — picking unsorted parts and sequencing them into delivery trolleys — after an 11-month Figure 02 pilot that fed sheet metal for more than 30,000 X3s. It's one of the more concrete humanoid deployments going — a named automaker, a named task, on a real production line. The caveat BMW itself implies is the honest one — this is just-in-sequence logistics, not yet the dexterous assembly humanoids are sold on.

Agility takes Digit public via SPAC at $2.5B — the field's first honest quote

Agility Robotics will go public by merging with Churchill Capital Corp XI at a $2.5B valuation, raising about $620M with a Foxconn-led PIPE and listing as "AGLT." It would be the first US-listed pure-play humanoid with real deployments — Digit already logs hours at GXO, Schaeffler, Toyota and Mercado Libre. The SPAC route, and the $2.5B tag against Figure's private $39B, is a tell — this is the grown-up, warehouse end of the field, priced on contracts rather than dreams.

Neura Robotics raises up to $1.4B — read the "up to"

Germany's Neura Robotics closed a Series C of up to $1.4B at a roughly $7B valuation, with Nvidia, Amazon, Qualcomm, Tether and the European Investment Bank on the cap table — Europe's biggest humanoid bet yet. Read the "up to," though — much of the headline is tied to performance milestones, so it's a ceiling, not a wire transfer. Even discounted, it confirms the capital flooding humanoids is now a global, multi-pole race.

Preorders open on JD.com

¥3,000 (~$450) deposit under the new UWORLD consumer brand — more than 2,100 reservations in the first week, before a final price existed.

Figure says it's now building a humanoid every hour

Figure's BotQ line now turns out one Figure 03 per hour — up from one a day in under 120 days — and has produced more than 350 units. Throughput, not choreography, is the battleground now, and a claimed 24x ramp is the sector's most credible manufacturing story if it holds. The figure to watch next is how many of those robots are doing paid work versus sitting in inventory.

A companion robot cut elder loneliness 95% — and that's the worry, too

New York's rollout of the ElliQ companion robot from Intuition Robotics reports a 95% drop in self-reported loneliness — the strongest real-world evidence yet that a talking machine can move the needle on isolation. But clinicians in the same report warn the device can become an excuse to withdraw further, and that a companion AI tuned to agree with you may reinforce exactly the thinking a vulnerable user needs challenged.

Hayward factory opens for full-scale production

A vertically integrated NEO plant with 10,000-unit annual capacity; first consumer shipments reiterated for 2026.

1X opens a NEO factory after selling out year one in five days

1X opened a Hayward, California plant it calls America's first vertically integrated humanoid factory, with capacity for 10,000 NEOs a year. The number that matters sits in the fine print — the entire first-year run sold out within five days of October's preorder launch. Demand for a $20,000 home humanoid is plainly real — even though early NEOs still lean on remote human operators for anything unscripted.

Ramp update: one robot per hour, 350+ delivered

Figure said output scaled 24x in under 120 days, with over 350 third-generation robots delivered.

Tesla slips Optimus V3 again, and admits it can't forecast output

On its Q1 call Tesla pushed the Optimus V3 reveal to mid-2026 and confirmed it's tearing out the Fremont Model S/X line to build robots, with production not starting until late July or August. Musk's own framing — output will move "as fast as the least lucky, slowest, dumbest part" of 10,000 — is the most honest thing said about humanoid timelines all year.

Realbotix to ship 19 robots this spring — to businesses, not bedrooms

Realbotix says it will deliver 19 robots across March through May, including units to a large telecom client — modest numbers for a public company chasing a Nasdaq uplisting. For the companion segment it's a useful reality check — the most expressive androids on the market still ship in the low double digits, and mostly into hospitality and reception roles, not homes.

Unitree files for a Shanghai IPO — and the prospectus tells the real story

Unitree filed for a roughly $610M listing on Shanghai's STAR Market, a landmark first for China's humanoid sector. The numbers are the headline, not the valuation. Unitree shipped 5,500 humanoids in 2025 at about $25,000 each, on $250M of revenue — more units than anyone in the West. China's price-led volume play is the mirror image of Silicon Valley's valuation-led one.

Sunday Robotics raises $165M for a chore robot that doesn't exist yet

A startup not yet a year old, founded by two ex-Stanford roboticists, hit a $1.15B valuation on "Memo" — a household robot it plans to ship by Thanksgiving but hasn't yet built. Coatue led, with Benchmark and Tiger Global along for the ride. The bet is on manipulation data, not a finished product, and it's one more sign that "home robot" valuations now run years ahead of any home robot.

Robotics business sold to Onconetix

An all-stock deal hands the Realbotix unit behind Aria to Nasdaq-listed Onconetix (operating under the Realbotix name), with closing expected by end of Q3 2026.

DroidUp's Moya goes viral — and the spec sheet doesn't survive scrutiny

A female-presenting prototype with claimed body-temperature skin and a "92% human" gait lit up social media — but every figure traces to a single in-house demo.

Raises $520M more at ~$5B valuation

Series A passes $935M total, pointed at planned commercial-scale deployment in 2026.

Apptronik raises $520M for Apollo at a $5B valuation

The Austin maker extended its Series A to nearly $1B total, funding Apollo's push from warehouse pilots toward commercial scale.

~$173,000 estimate and late-2026 window reported

Coverage citing DroidUp put the starting price near ¥1.2M with market entry expected late 2026, healthcare and education first — none of it formally confirmed.

Musk concedes no Optimus does 'useful work' yet

On the Q4 2025 call, factory units were described as serving learning and data collection — the 2025 'useful things' target was missed.

5,500+ humanoids confirmed delivered in 2025

Unitree's official clarification: over 5,500 humanoids sold and delivered in 2025 (6,500+ produced) — the G1 genuinely shipped at scale.

CES 2026: robot-to-robot conversation

Aria and new robot David held a 2+ hour autonomous, unscripted on-device conversation in four languages.

Hyundai: Atlas on US factory lines from 2028

Deployment on proven processes at the Georgia Metaplant from 2028, backed by a $26B US investment including a 30,000-unit-a-year robot plant.

Boston Dynamics' electric Atlas enters limited production

The all-electric Atlas began limited commercial production in early 2026, with the first units committed to Hyundai and Google DeepMind.

Production Atlas unveiled at CES 2026

Shown at Hyundai's media day alongside a Google DeepMind partnership; 2026 production allocations were already fully committed.

January 2026 — Moya unveiled in Shanghai

DroidUp presented the warm-skinned biomimetic companion at the opening of its Zhangjiang Robotics Valley headquarters.

US preorders open: $20,000 or $499/month

$200 refundable deposit, US deliveries promised for 2026; 1X was open that early operation leans on human-in-the-loop teleoperation.

1X opens NEO pre-orders at $499 a month

The first true home humanoid you can reserve — $20,000 outright or $499/month — with US deliveries targeted for late 2026.

Figure 03 revealed

Rebuilt around Helix and the home — soft textiles, wireless charging, tactile fingertips — and designed for BotQ mass production.

Figure raises past $1B at a $39B valuation, and turns toward the home

The field's richest startup closed a billion-dollar round — then unveiled the home-focused Figure 03, signaling that the living room, not the warehouse, is the real prize.

M-Series shown at IFA Berlin

39 degrees of freedom and an enhanced eye-camera vision system for real-time recognition and gaze awareness.

Ask Aria web platform goes live

Anyone can chat with Aria's companionship AI online, in 25 languages.

Optimus program chief departs

VP Milan Kovac, who led Optimus since 2022, left; delay reports followed — supplier order pauses and a dexterous-hand redesign.

March 2025 — BotQ factory announced

First-generation line rated for up to 12,000 humanoids a year, with a claimed path to 100,000 over four years.

Home alpha testing promised for 2025

CEO Brett Adcock said Helix's progress pulled in-home testing forward two years.

NEO Gamma revealed

Refined home prototype in a knitted nylon suit, slated for limited in-home testing; 1X cautioned it was far from commercial scale.

Protoclone V1 video goes viral

The faceless prototype (1,000+ Myofibers) twitched to life suspended from a ceiling; preorders were again promised for later in 2025.

$350M Series A with Google participation

Co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory, on top of a Google DeepMind robotics partnership.

Open retail sale on JD.com

Listed at 99,000 yuan (~$13,700) after its Spring Festival Gala fame; the first listing quickly sold out.

'Several thousand' Optimus promised for 2025

Musk conceded Tesla probably wouldn't hit 10,000 builds in 2025 but promised several thousand 'doing useful things' at Tesla by year-end.

Launch pricing reported

CES coverage put the bust at $10,000, the modular body at $150,000 and the full standing version at $175,000 — pricing has since shifted to today's F-Series structure (see above).

Price reported around $150,000

Launch coverage put the modular Melody near $150,000; the M-Series has since been listed from $95,000 (see above).

Aria debuts at CES 2025

Realbotix's first trade show; the company logged over 2 billion global media impressions.

Melody unveiled at CES 2025

Open-platform, modular companion that disassembles to pack into a suitcase.

Engineered Arts raises a $10M Series A

Restructured as a US company to scale production of full-size and desktop Amecas.

Clone Alpha announced: 279 units, preorders 'in 2025'

A limited run of 279 home androids, price undisclosed.

Founding CEO ousted; layoffs follow

The board separated co-founder Geordie Rose from the company; roughly 30 staff were cut days later.

Synthetic-muscle torso unveiled

Video of a bimanual torso with water-powered Myofiber artificial muscles — the tech base promised for Clone Alpha.

'We, Robot' event and $20k–$30k price talk

The bots that poured drinks and chatted with guests were later confirmed to be human-teleoperated.

NEO Beta unveiled

1X's first public look at its home humanoid — safety, quiet operation and natural interaction over industrial capability.

August 2024 — mass-production version shown

A refined, production-ready G1, still from $16,000.

GXO Logistics R&D agreement

Lab proof-of-concept first, then Apollo trials in a US distribution center.

G1 unveiled from $16,000

Introduced at ICRA 2024 in Yokohama — a fraction of the $90,000 H1.

Gen 7 Phoenix unveiled

New tasks learnable in under 24 hours versus weeks, with 50% faster assembly and cheaper components, per Sanctuary.

All-electric Atlas revealed

A day after retiring the hydraulic Atlas, Boston Dynamics called its successor a product for the first time, with Hyundai plants as proving ground.

Mercedes-Benz pilot announced

Apollo's first commercial deployment: intralogistics trials in Mercedes plants.

Optimus Gen 2 revealed

Tesla-designed actuators, 2-DoF neck, 10 kg lighter and 30% faster walking than Gen 1; shown handling eggs.

Apollo unveiled

Apptronik targeted a commercial release by end of 2024 at 'about the price of a new car' — a window that came and went.

Phoenix (Gen 6) unveiled

A 170 cm general-purpose humanoid with 20-DoF haptic hands, powered by the Carbon control system.

October 2022 — joins Dubai's Museum of the Future

Hired as the museum's first robotic staff member.

First prototype walks at AI Day 2022

Development unit 'Bumble-C' walked untethered and waved on stage.

GPT-3 conversation demo

An unscripted conversation video, answering via OpenAI's GPT-3 — an early glimpse of the LLM-powered social robot.

First public showing at CES 2022

Ameca met the public at the Venetian Expo after the viral video.

Debut video goes viral

The 'waking up' clip — Ameca examining its hands — topped 10 million views within days.

Tesla Bot announced at AI Day

No hardware existed — a dancer in a spandex suit stood in for the robot, and Musk promised a prototype 'sometime next year'.