Agility Robotics said it will go public in a deal valuing the humanoid robot maker at about $2.5 billion. The company plans to merge with Churchill Capital Corp XI, in a transaction expected to bring in more than $600 million in gross proceeds, while funding t
Agility Robotics is getting ready for Wall Street with a plan built around a market structure that used to dominate IPOs—and is now back in fashion.
On Wednesday, the humanoid robot maker said it plans to go public in a deal valuing the company at about $2.5 billion. If the transaction closes, Agility—whose Digit robots are designed for physical work—would become the first humanoid-focused company to go public in the US.
The move also places Agility at the center of a broader shift in how investors are judging humanoid companies. The market has been full of flashy demos. but Agility is aiming at deployment: it says it has already placed its Digit robot across nine customer facilities. including those of Amazon. Toyota. and logistics provider GXO.
Agility’s path to listing is a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI. a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by former Citigroup executive Michael Klein. Agility. which spun out of Oregon State University in 2015. expects the deal to be completed so the company will trade under the ticker AGLT.
Jonathan Hurst, Agility’s cofounder and chief robot officer, framed the timing as a window for first movers. “The timing is right, both for our company and for the market,” Hurst told Business Insider. “We’re hitting now as a first mover, which is really important, and we want to be defining the humanoid industry.”.
SPACs are built as blank-check vehicles: they are publicly traded shells with no operations or assets other than a cash “war chest.” They are created so they can eventually merge with or be acquired by an operating company. letting that company go public without a traditional initial public offering.
This route boomed in 2021 as low interest rates helped fuel a wave of such deals. Activity cooled in subsequent years, but SPACs are drawing renewed attention as the IPO market revives.
Agility’s stated rationale for choosing the SPAC route is tied directly to its need for financial horsepower as it scales. Hurst said the company chose this structure specifically to bring in Klein. describing him as a complement to Agility’s technical focus as it goes public. Klein is described as a prolific SPAC sponsor who has helped take companies such as Sam Altman-backed nuclear power company Oklo and electric vehicle maker Lucid public.
The transaction is expected to generate more than $600 million in gross proceeds. That total includes $420 million in cash from Churchill XI and more than $200 million through a common-stock private investment in public equity led by Foxconn. the Taiwan-based electronics manufacturer and an existing Agility investor. Other Agility backers include venture firm DCVC, Nvidia, Amazon, and SoftBank.
Hurst said the company plans to use the public-market milestone to be more transparent as it scales and to establish benchmarks in a hyped-up industry.
Agility said the money raised from going public will go toward fulfilling existing customer orders, expanding deployments, and scaling production of its next-generation humanoid, Digit v5.
Digit is described as a full-sized humanoid capable of repetitive physical tasks, including carrying heavy storage and sorting goods. For Digit v5, Agility says it has more than $300 million in multiyear orders.
Battery life is part of the operational pitch. Hurst said the robot’s battery is designed to charge quickly enough to operate for 20 of 24 hours.
Safety is the other central promise. Hurst said the company’s biggest focus is safety, and that humanoid robots typically require a physical barrier between themselves and human workers. Agility wants robots safe enough to operate without that barrier.
Agility says Digit v5 will be the first version that can “just walk into existing as-built environments without any additional infrastructure required,” and carry out human workflows in human spaces. Hurst also said Agility is working with Nvidia on the safety system.
This week, Nvidia announced Halos for Robotics, described as a safety system designed to help robots operate around people in industrial settings. Agility said it will be the first company to incorporate the software into its humanoids.
The debut comes as the humanoid robotics industry moves from demonstrations toward broader real-world deployment. In the US, Agility says it is the first company to commercially deploy humanoids.
The competitive landscape is widening. Tesla is developing Optimus and plans to begin producing it this summer. Hyundai-owned Boston Dynamics plans to deploy its Atlas humanoid in factories in 2028.
Other companies are pushing forward abroad. Figure AI—most recently valued at $39 billion—piloted its humanoids at a BMW manufacturing plant in Germany and has a deal to deploy robots across the distribution and logistics network of Catalyst Brands. the parent company of JCPenney. Aéropostale. and Brooks Brothers. Agility also pointed to activity among Chinese firms. including Unitree. which is preparing to go public and targeting a valuation of up to $7 billion.
Chinese robotics firms accounted for about 90% of humanoid robot shipments last year, according to Omdia.
For Agility, the Wall Street filing is not just about valuation. It is about converting a category that investors have mostly watched from the sidelines into something that can be funded at industrial scale—using cash raised now to expand orders. deployments. and production while it builds a safer operating system for humans sharing space with machines.
And as the SPAC market tries to return to life, the question behind the deal is simple: can Agility’s push toward safety, integration into existing environments, and customer rollouts hold up once the company is forced to meet public-market scrutiny?
Agility Robotics Wall Street SPAC Churchill Capital Corp XI Michael Klein Digit Digit v5 AGLT Foxconn Nvidia humanoid robots Halos for Robotics Amazon Toyota GXO Oregon State University