Agility Robotics is heading to the public markets at a valuation notable less for its size than for its restraint. The Salem, Oregon-based maker of the bipedal Digit robot announced a SPAC merger that values the company at roughly $2.5 billion and is expected to raise significant capital — as reported by TechCrunch. It will also make Agility one of the first humanoid robotics companies on public markets.
A modest valuation in an inflated market
The $2.5 billion figure is striking mostly for what surrounds it. Figure AI closed a $1 billion Series C last fall at a $39 billion valuation. Austin-based Apptronik raised $935 million earlier this year at more than $5.5 billion. And in late June, Shenzhen-based AI2 Robotics raised roughly $735 million at a nearly $3 billion valuation, alongside a parallel round for X Square Robots.
Against that backdrop, Agility’s numbers look almost quaint — until you look at the revenue line. The company has substantial booked, multi-year revenue representing significant robot deployments under a robots-as-a-service model. Customers include major logistics and manufacturing companies.
Why SPAC, why now
Going public via SPAC is a structure that carries baggage from the 2021 vintage of failed listings. The argument is essentially about sequencing: being among the first humanoid companies on public markets creates a scarcity trade for retail investors otherwise locked out of the sector. The proceeds will fund production ramp at Agility’s Salem manufacturing facility and satisfy the existing customer pipeline.
The structural pressure here is worth naming. Private valuations in humanoid robotics have climbed faster than the revenue underneath them. Silicon Canals has previously reported on a two-year-old robotics startup valued above $14 billion on roughly $30 million in revenue. Agility, by contrast, brings ten years of deployment history and a paying customer base — but it is also raising at a fraction of the multiple that private markets have handed to less proven rivals. A public listing is one of the few venues where that gap can be tested.
The safety moat competitors don’t advertise
The most pointed comments from Agility concerned the gap between choreographed demos and industrial deployment. Rival companies have generated viral content from lab settings; Tesla’s Optimus units were remotely operated at its Cybercab event in 2024. Meanwhile, Figure AI’s former head of product safety sued the company in November, alleging he was dismissed after raising concerns that its robots were powerful enough to fracture a human skull. Figure has disputed the claims.
According to Johnson, industrial safety certification cannot be retrofitted. She said a robot’s electrical system, components, and software all have to be certified together, and building the machine first and then trying to make it safe amounts to a redesign. That regulatory work is invisible in demo reels but decisive when a robot has to enter a live Amazon fulfillment centre with humans on the floor.
The home is not coming soon
Johnson estimated humanoid robots are more than ten years away from viable home deployment. Warehouses have fixed aisles, predictable workflows, and vetted safety perimeters. Homes have dogs, children, and objects left in unexpected places. She drew the comparison to autonomous vehicles: even roads have discipline, and most of the environments humanoids will operate in do not.
The commercial logic points the same direction. The warehouse and logistics sector faces significant labor shortages — a labor gap that pays for itself in a way that domestic chore automation does not. AI2 Robotics and X Square Robots are pursuing a similar industrial-first thesis in China, targeting sectors with acute labour shortages before chasing the consumer market.
What the listing reveals
The more interesting disclosure in Agility’s SPAC filing may be the one competitors have avoided: actual unit economics in a sector where most players guard their numbers. Public markets will now price humanoid robotics against booked revenue and safety certifications rather than demo footage. That is a different game from the one being played in private rounds — and the delta between Agility’s $2.5 billion valuation and Figure’s $39 billion is the number worth watching.
