Servoservobrief.com, Saturday, November 14, 2026
A big European robotics raise and two fresh factory deployment stories carry an otherwise quiet day.
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Agile Robots raises $500M at an $8.5B valuation
Update: the SoftBank-led round we flagged earlier is now confirmed at $500M Series F, with NVIDIA, Hitachi and T.Capital joining, bringing total funding to roughly $2B. Unlike most humanoid startups, the Munich firm reports 20,000-plus industrial robots deployed, 3,500 staff and existing revenue, so investors are backing a working automation business expanding its Agile ONE humanoid, not a pure bet on a demo.
Read more on Forbes, SiliconAngle, tech.eu -
ASUS puts its Gallop humanoid on a real packing station in its own factory
ASUS detailed Gallop, its first humanoid, learning to pack 15 small motherboard accessories, many in clear bags, with a target of 99.5% success within 20 seconds per board. The 99.5% figure is a goal, not an achieved result, and the robot runs on a fixed base with its in-house dexterous hand not yet integrated. Customer pilots are planned for 2027 and sale for the second half of 2028.
Read more on ASUS, Interesting Engineering, Unite.AI -
GXO signs Apptronik for up to 1,000 Apollo humanoids
Update: more detail on the GXO-Apptronik letter of intent, now specified as up to 1,000 Apollo humanoids over four years under a robots-as-a-service model, with live trials beginning in 2027 and first North American deployment late 2027. It builds on a 2024 proof of concept and a 2026 pilot where Apollo autonomously picked small goods, and it stacks on GXO's separate Agility Digit expansion.
Read more on Supply Chain Digital -
Six AgiBot G2 robots run a 24-hour Shanghai convenience store trial
AgiBot ran six of its G2 humanoids through a 24-hour trial at a Shanghai convenience store, completing 1,730 tasks such as restocking and sorting. The run is a vendor-reported pilot, not a paying deployment, but a multi-robot shift in a live retail setting is a step past the single-robot staged clips that dominate Chinese humanoid marketing.
Read more on The Robot Report -
EAI Technology, a robot-chip maker, jumps 38% in its Hong Kong IPO
EAI Technology listed in Hong Kong on November 12, pricing shares at $1.20 and raising about $79.3M net, closing up 38% on day one. The firm designs chips and algorithms for mobile robots covering perception, mapping and motion control, and supplies Xiaomi and Ecovacs, with about 70% of proceeds going to robot-chip R&D.
Read more on Dealroom