Robotics manufacturer Apptronik announced this week that it has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with design and manufacturing giant Jabil to build, test, and deploy Apptronik’s Apollo humanoid robots.
It’s not exactly a Von Neumann machine, but this is a big deal that will eventually see robots building robots. While Apptronik has significant expertise and just raised a massive $350 million round from investors including Google to make humanoid robots, it only has about 150 employees and a relatively small global footprint. In contrast, Jabil has 140,000 employees at over 100 sites across 25 countries to go with reported revenue of almost $30 billion last year. If this partnership works well, Jabil can significantly accelerate execution of Apptronik’s humanoid robot project.
“Humanoid robots have the potential to revolutionize the way we live and work, but for that to become a reality, we need to be able to build them rapidly at scale, at the right price point, and in geographies where our customers are located,” Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas said in a statement. “Our partnership with Jabil, along with our unique design for manufacturability and ability to have Apollo humanoid robots handling material movement and assembly tasks in the factory, are critical components needed to create a flywheel effect that could make humanoid robots ubiquitous.”
Both of those elements are critical. Jabil will serve as a worldwide manufacturing partner, but it will also use Apollo humanoid robots in their factories. That usage is just as important as the manufacturing, because a robot fleet that isn’t trained in the kinds of tasks manufacturing and logistics customers need accomplished won’t sell a lot of units.
“The robots will be used to complete an array of simple, repetitive intralogistics and manufacturing tasks, including inspection, sorting, kitting, lineside delivery, fixture placement, and sub-assembly before being deployed to Apptronik customer sites,” Apptronik says in its press release.
We’re seeing a massive acceleration in the development of humanoid robots so far in 2025. Apptronik competitor Figure has aggressive plans to ship 100,000 humanoid robots over the next four years and just announced that it will start alpha-testing its humanoid robot in homes this year, two years faster originally planned.
There are 16 leading companies in the humanoid robots space, with probably 100 total working on the problem. And just this month Meta–of all companies–said it would add humanoid robots to its existing social media products like Facebook and Instagram.
As part of the just-announced pilot program, newly manufactured Apollo units will undergo real-world validation testing in Jabil’s factory environment before being deployed to Apptronik customer sites.
Apptronik is working on home use too, Apptronik says. Until now, the company has been more focused on the manufacturing and logistics markets. But apparently Apptronik’s latest design includes “unique actuators” that reduce components, manufacturing time, and costs, making mass production cheaper and easier. That should help make general-purpose humanoid robots more affordable and facilitate their expansion into new markets such as retail, elder care, and home use.
“We’ve been committed to advanced automation and robotics across our operations, so piloting Apollo is a logical next step for our division and for Jabil in the long term,” says Rafael Renno, a senior VP at Jabil. “Not only will we get a first-hand look at the impact that general-purpose robots can have as we test Apollo in our operations, but as we begin producing Apollo units, we can play a role in defining the future of manufacturing.”
It’s worth noting that with Figure’s announcement that it will be testing its humanoid robot in home this year, futurist and author Peter Diamandis’ prediction that we’ll have beta tests of humanoid robots in people’s homes by 2026 will come true a full year early.
