German robotics and Physical AI company Agile Robots announced on Thursday (November 12) the close of a $500 million Series F round, valuing the company at $8.5 billion. The round was led by SoftBank Group, with participation from Nvidia, Hitachi Group (Hitachi and Hitachi Ventures), T.Capital and other investors. With the new funding, the company's total capital raised since founding reaches $2 billion.
Where the money goes
According to the official statement, the money will fund expansion in the United States, increased production capacity — including in Germany — and entry into new markets. In early 2026, the company opened a facility in Fürstenfeldbruck, near Munich, with capacity to produce up to 10,000 humanoid robots per year.
What Agile Robots does
Founded in 2018 as a spin-off of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Agile Robots builds humanoid and mobile robots, robotic arms and hands, and the software and AI models that control them. The company says it has more than 20,000 robotic solutions installed worldwide, over 2,000 R&D specialists and more than 650 patents. In November 2025, it launched the industrial humanoid Agile ONE.
“Physical AI will fundamentally change how the world builds, moves and makes things,” said CEO and founder Dr. Zhaopeng Chen in the statement. SoftBank had already led the company's Series C in 2021, and Nvidia named Agile Robots in October among the German startups it would back under an industrial AI deal with the German government.
According to Bloomberg, the amount came in below the roughly $800 million that was under discussion in June — background information not confirmed by the companies.
Related: in October, Audi announced a trial with Agile Robots' mobile humanoids for parts sequencing in Ingolstadt. Read the earlier Geekiki story: Audi testa humanoides móveis da Agile Robots para sequenciar peças em Ingolstadt.
Sources: official Agile Robots statement; Reuters.
Image credit: official image of the Agile ONE humanoid, by Agile Robots (press material), via Boisdron.
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, cross-checked against public posts and sources on the internet. Please consult the original sources for more details.
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