Humanoid robot developer with Pittsburgh roots is heading to Wall Street
The robots are coming - to Wall Street.
Humanoid robot developer Agility Robotics is transforming from a private startup into a publicly traded company in the stock market through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI - a deal that would place Agility's market value at a cool $2.5 billion.
Agility is based in Salem, Ore., but has its Pittsburgh hub in Lawrenceville on "Robotics Row," alongside Carnegie Robotics and the National Robotics Engineering Center. New York City-based Churchill Capital is one of many companies founded by investor Michael Klein that is meant to invest in private companies with the goal of making them publicly traded.
The deal, which requires Churchill XI shareholder and regulatory approvals, is expected to close by the end of 2026.
Peggy Johnson, CEO of Agility Robotics and former Microsoft executive, called the moment a "meaningful inflection point" for the commercial adoption of humanoids.
"Humanoid robots are a critical driver of American technology leadership and the future of global industry," Johnson said in a prepared statement Wednesday. "... Agility is at the forefront of a new era where safety-first, AI-powered technology can reliably work alongside people to bridge labor shortages, increase productivity and strengthen the resilience of our supply chains."
Agility makes Digit, the humanoid robot that stands 5 feet, 9 inches tall and lives in warehouses, helping its human co-workers move and stack boxes up to 35 pounds. It also "smiles" and waves.
Digit is working with Amazon to help move products in warehouses. In December, Agility announced a partnership with Mercado Libre, "the leading company in e-commerce and financial technology in Latin America," headquartered in Montevideo, Uruguay. Digit will help with fulfillment operations at Mercado Libre's facility in San Antonio, Texas.
Johnson said the market opportunity for Agility and Digit "across manufacturing, distribution, and logistics environments in the United States" is estimated at $1 trillion.
For some, in a strained workforce ecosystem bracing for the ongoing integration of artificial intelligence, robots present an opportunity to fulfill the dull, dirty and dangerous aspects of human work.
Robots like Digit are an increasingly prevalent project among robotics companies across the globe that are trying to bring humanoids into workplaces, then into everyday life - specifically into the home as helpers. Digit's key competitors include Tesla's Optimus, Norwegian 1X's NEO humanoid designed as a home helper, Boston Dynamics' Electric Atlas and Figure AI's Figure 03.
These humanoid robots push the boundaries of camera vision, artificial intelligence, robotic mechanisms and design, each targeting different degrees of precision, or ability. For example, Digit is currently used to move heavy objects and does not have fingers like 1X's NEO humanoid does, because NEO is targeted for the home.
But your dishwasher is also a robot, and one that works quite well, said Pras Velagapudi, chief technology officer at Agility, in a December interview with the Post-Gazette. And, most importantly, it's proven safe in the home. While Agility has a long-term goal to put robots wherever they can be in the world, Digit, for now, is for industrial use.
"We want to be producing a humanoid robot that can solve all of those disparate types of labor problems that are out there in the world," Mr. Velagapudi said in December. "We would love to have Digit take on all of the manual labor that people don't want to."
While Agility builds humanoids, he warned against the notion that human-shaped is the only, or best, kind of robot configuration - just consider that dishwasher.
"It works great. You wouldn't necessarily want to replace your dishwasher with a humanoid standing over the sink.
"Robots have to serve purposes," he added. "They can't just exist in the world for the sake of existing in the world. They have to be able to do useful work to prove themselves, at least at scale."
Agility is focusing on proving its humanoids' safety in the workplace - Digit has to work segregated from human co-workers. But the incoming Digit v5 is set to be the "world's first cooperatively-safe robot," the company said.
"We set out to build robots capable of performing useful physical work in environments designed for people, and that mission has been central to Agility from day one," said Jonathan Hurst, co-founder and chief robot officer of Agility Robotics. "We believe cooperative safety is the critical unlock for scaled humanoid adoption, and our next generation Digit represents an important milestone toward a future where robots become trusted partners in the workplace."
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This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 8:09 AM.