{
  "id": 19613498,
  "title": "Robotics: Humanoid robots from Germany: Agile Robots valued at $8.5 billion",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/12/robotik-humanoide-roboter-aus-deutschland-agile-robots-mit-8-5",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-11-12T06:10:42.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/technik/ki/robotik-agile-robots-jetzt-mit-85-milliarden-dollar-bewertet/100265688.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Munich, Germany - The German startup Agile Robots has secured a valuation of $8.5 billion in a recent funding round, led by Japanese investment firm Softbank Group. Among the investors are chip giant Nvidia and Hitachi, who together contributed $500 million to the specialist in humanoid robots. Agile Robots CEO Zhaopeng Chen told the Handelsblatt newspaper, \"We are now the most valuable robotics company in Europe,\" positioning the company above its competitor Neura Robotics from Metzingen, which had raised $1.4 billion in the largest funding round in Germany until then. Neura's valuation has since dropped to around $7 billion.\n\nSince its inception in 2018, Agile has raised a total of about $2 billion. The CEO aims to expand production capacity and increase expansion with the new funding. \"The United States is an important market, we will likely build our next factory there,\" Chen said. In early 2022, Agile opened a new factory in Fürstenfeldbruck outside Munich, where up to 10,000 humanoid robots with legs or wheels could be produced annually. Chen did not disclose how many of these humanoid robots have already been delivered to customers. He only stated that they plan to start mass production of the Agile One next year, with the goal of tripling production capacity. So far, humanoid robots have been used sparingly in industry for individual projects.",
  "summary": "The start-up raises $500 million, primarily from Japanese super-investor Softbank. The technology in question is one where Germany could remain a global leader.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}