Agility Robotics goes public, revealing humanoid robot economics

Humanoid robots remain unproven

Humanoid robots have not achieved widespread commercialization, unlike industrial robots with decades of proven warehouse and factory track records. Agility Robotics acknowledged this risk in its securities filing.

Agility becomes first public humanoid developer

Agility Robotics, headquartered in Salem, Oregon, listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange as of November five, becoming the first dedicated humanoid robot developer to go public in the United States.

First commercial deployment in 2024

Agility previously became the first to achieve full-time commercial deployment of humanoid robots at a customer warehouse in two thousand twenty-four, ahead of its public listing.

Subscription model reduces customer risk

Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robot officer at Agility Robotics, said the subscription model is lower risk for customers because they get return on investment on day one at rates comparable to human labor.

“When we are doing robots as a service, it is much lower risk for customers to use it because they are getting a return on investment on day one.”

Digit robots deployed with major customers

Agility has deployed Digit humanoid robots with GXO logistics warehouses in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee, Schaeffler's South Carolina factory, and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada's automotive production lines.

Subscription pricing: twenty-five thousand plus eighty-five hundred monthly

Under Agility's subscription model, customers pay a one-time deployment cost of about twenty-five thousand dollars per robot, plus a recurring monthly fee of eighty-five hundred dollars for software and maintenance.

Ownership model: two hundred thousand upfront

Customers can purchase Digit robots outright for two hundred thousand dollars plus twenty thousand for deployment, but still pay thirty-six thousand dollars annually or three thousand monthly for software and maintenance.

Digit five launches in twenty twenty-seven

Agility's Digit five robot can lift fifty-pound loads, perform more than twenty hours of work in twenty-four hours, and features swappable end-effector hands. It launches in twenty twenty-seven.

Nine-minute battery charges ninety minutes runtime

Digit five uses fast-charging battery technology from UK-based Nyobolt, requiring just nine minutes to deliver ninety minutes of robot runtime. Agility has an exclusive agreement with Nyobolt for humanoid robot applications.

Subscription replaces two hundred thousand in labor costs

Agility's chief financial officer Michael Beer said the subscription model allows customers to replace two hundred thousand dollars in annual labor costs with one hundred thousand dollars in annual robot costs.

Bill of materials falls with scale

Agility estimates each Digit five costs one hundred fifty thousand dollars initially, falling to seventy-five thousand at one thousand robots annually, and thirty thousand at ten thousand robots per year.

Agility expects losses to continue

Agility's financial disclosures state the company has incurred net losses since inception and expects to continue operating and net losses for the foreseeable future.

“Agility has incurred net losses since inception and expects to continue to incur operating and net losses for the foreseeable future.”

Competition intensifying from well-funded rivals

Agility faces intensifying competition from Boston Dynamics, Tesla, Apptronik, Figure AI, one X Technologies, Sanctuary AI, Hexagon and NEURA Robotics, many with greater brand recognition, customer relationships and financial resources.

Hurst sees millions of unfilled manual labor roles

Agility co-founder Jonathan Hurst expects multiple customers to share videos of Digit robots doing routine work within a year, with the market eventually resembling the automotive industry with different companies serving different niches.

“It'll look a bit like the dawn of the automotive market, and different companies will have different niches, some companies will build the Ford F-150 and some companies will build a Mazda Miata.”