Organization: Felix, PANews

Reference: The Robot Report

Recently, the humanoid robot startup Agility, based in Salem, Oregon, has been making favorable headlines. On one hand, it announced a plan to go public through a SPAC merger, and on the other hand, the "white-haired stock god" Serenity publicly endorses it, claiming Agility is one of the most commercially viable projects in the American humanoid robot industry.

Due to widespread external interest, this article will summarize the corporate background, core products, and commercialization progress of Agility Robotics.

Agility has developed "collaborative safety" humanoid robots

In 2015, Dr. Jonathan Hurst, Dr. Damion Shelton, and Mikhail Jones founded Agility from the Dynamic Robotics Laboratory at Oregon State University. Since then, the company has been focused on advancing humanoid robots from the research and development stage to the practical commercial deployment stage, accumulating extensive expertise in robotics, physical AI, safety systems, and enterprise automation.

Agility's goal is to create robots that can perform practical manual labor in environments designed for humans. As co-founder and Chief Robotics Officer Jonathan Hurst has stated, the team researched hundreds of applications and realized that moving boxes and bags is a very good entry point.

The Digit v5 that Agility is designing is suitable for human-robot collaborative environments and aims to expand the range of tasks that can be automated. It will be able to lift objects weighing up to 22.7 kg (40% more than v4), operate for about 22 hours on a single charge, and reach heights of up to 2.1 meters.

Digit V5

Agility explains that the robot’s physical AI platform allows it to operate safely in complex human-centered environments while perceiving, understanding, and interacting with the physical world. In March of this year, the company renamed itself Agility Robotics to "Agility" and pointed out that as practical application scenarios continue to expand, its functions are also continuously improving, and new skills are being constantly developed.

Agility has technology partners including Google DeepMind and NVIDIA. Notably, NVIDIA chose Agility as its launch partner for NVIDIA Halos. NVIDIA Halos is a full-stack safety system aimed at physical AI and humanoid robots. Additionally, Agility has adopted the NVIDIA IGX Thor platform.

To support commercial scaling, Agility has established the necessary manufacturing, hardware, supply chain, and deployment infrastructure. This includes a full-scale modular manufacturing facility RoboFab located in Salem, Oregon, designed to support an annual capacity of up to 10,000 units.

Agility also has operational facilities in Pittsburgh and Fremont, California. The company states that many of the most valuable hardware systems in the Digit robots are primarily mastered or owned by Agility, and about 75% of the components of its robots are sourced from domestic suppliers in the United States.

Agility Arc is a cloud-based automation platform for integrating Digit into customers’ operations. Jonathan Hurst stated that the platform supports cross-facility deployments, fleet coordination, and operational management, providing robot status information and integrating with warehouse management systems (WMS).

The humanoid robot Digit has completed commercial deployment

After more than a decade of R&D, Digit v4 is now in use in manufacturing, distribution, and logistics industries to alleviate long-standing physical labor shortages.

In 2024, Digit won Agility the first annual RBR50 Robotics Award, becoming one of the first humanoid robots to conduct commercial trials with Amazon and GXO Logistics. In 2026, Digit was awarded again for handling over 100,000 turnover boxes for GXO last year.

Digit v4 has a load capacity of 15.8 kg, an arm span of 1.6 meters, and can operate for 16 hours on a standard charge. Today, Digit is utilized by several companies, including Schaeffler, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, and Mercado Libre, to perform repetitive manual tasks such as machine operation and sorting. Through deployments in nine customer factories, Digit has accumulated over 65,000 operating hours.

Agility is preparing to officially launch Digit v5. The company states that it has received over $300 million in multi-year orders for Digit v5, but final execution will depend on meeting the contractual phased conditions.

Jonathan Hurst said, “We found that safety is the biggest barrier to widespread application in commercial deployment.” “Once we deploy Digit v5, this will be a critical moment for the scaled application of humanoid robots. Our robots will be able to go out of fenced areas or work cells into various environments such as warehouses and factories.”

Agility’s Chief Financial and Operating Officer Jennifer Hunter stated that Digit can be acquired through a robot-as-a-service (RaaS) model or direct purchase, allowing for a quick return on investment. She also mentioned that the bill of materials cost for Digit v4 is $125,000, and Agility expects the cost to decrease further as production scales up.

The company states it has over 30 potential customers, reflecting the growing demand from businesses. Johnson also revealed that the company plans to license some of its technologies.

The Digit humanoid robot has been deployed by several commercial clients. Source: Agility

Leading tech companies invest in Agility, planning to expand production scale

Recently, Agility announced plans to go public through a merger with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Churchill Capital Corp. XI, expecting that this SPAC transaction will bring in over $620 million in total proceeds, with a pre-money valuation of $2.5 billion. After going public, it will become the only pure humanoid robot company in the U.S. with mature, active commercial deployments.

Agility has strategic investors and partners from the AI, technology, venture capital, and industrial ecosystems, including DCVC, NVIDIA, Amazon, SoftBank Vision Fund II, Schaeffler, Foxconn, EnerSys, and Playground Global.

Churchill Capital Corp. XI stated that the total proceeds of $620 million from this merger transaction will include $420 million in cash held in its trust account (assuming no redemptions). Additionally, it will include approximately $200 million of incremental financing raised through common stock PIPE (Private Investment in Public Equity) at $10 per share, led by Foxconn, with participation from existing and new institutional investors.

After the merger, the equity of Agility’s existing shareholders will all transfer to the merged company. After the transaction is completed, all existing shareholders of Agility will have their equity locked for 180 days. Upon obtaining regulatory approval and satisfying customary closing conditions, this transaction is expected to be completed this year. The merged company will continue to operate under the name Agility and will be listed on a major North American exchange with the ticker symbol "AGLT."

Agility stated that it plans to use the proceeds to fulfill existing customer orders, expand commercial deployments, scale up production of Digit v5, and continue investing in its integration platform.

Related reading: 20,000-word review of the 34 best humanoid robots of 2026

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