State of the Machines: Humanoids Move From Livestreams Into Logistics

STATE OF THE MACHINES

May 20-27, 2026 · Humanoid Roundup

Coverage

Humanoids, logistics automation, hand materials, product launches, production capacity, public-market filings and research infrastructure.

Evidence mix

Commercial agreement · strategic investment · funding · product launch · production-capacity claim · model release · IPO context · research artifact.

Core read

Figure turned a public warehouse livestream into a named logistics agreement, while the rest of the humanoid tape spread across hand materials, new entrants, product watch items, production lines and reusable control infrastructure.

Deployment

Figure signed an agreement with Catalyst Brands to deploy humanoids into Catalyst's distribution and logistics network, starting at the Reno, Nevada Distribution Logistics Center. Catalyst says the initial work will focus on repetitive, physically demanding supply-chain tasks. The announcement positions the site as the first commercial bridge between Figure and a Brookfield portfolio company.

Figure's Brookfield partnership announcement says Brookfield invested in Figure's Series C and agreed to support real-world humanoid data collection, deployment opportunities and infrastructure collaboration across Brookfield's operating footprint. Catalyst is therefore a cleaner route from Figure's financing and partner network into a named logistics environment, not just a standalone customer announcement.

The timing follows Figure's public package-sorting run. What began as an eight-hour demonstration was extended into a 24/7 run, with Figure later reaching 200 hours and 250,000 packages without failure.

There is a clear shift in gear at Figure. For months, the open questions were what the robots were actually doing and how quickly Figure could make them. In the past month, the company has said production has reached one robot per hour and has now tied its logistics work to a named deployment path. The caveat is still important: deployment-side details remain opaque, including robot count, autonomy split, uptime targets and expected throughput.

https://x.com/adcock_brett/status/2057651077928145235?s=20

Hands

Sanctuary AI and Zeon added the week's cleanest hand-supply-chain item. Zeon invested in Sanctuary AI through Zeon Ventures and will collaborate on specialized elastomeric components for dexterous robotic hands deployable in industrial environments.

Sanctuary frames its hand around miniaturized hydraulic actuators and high-fidelity tactile sensing, while Zeon brings elastomeric material expertise and testing capacity.

New Entrants

ATOM Humanoid launched as a Tokyo-based startup developing bipedal, dual-arm humanoid AI robots for manufacturing and logistics applications. Beyond Next Ventures says ATOM raised JPY 3 billion in seed financing, with the round co-led by ANRI, Beyond Next Ventures and JAFCO Group. The company is targeting tasks such as transport, replenishment and kitting, with the funding earmarked for Physical AI development, humanoid hardware, AI engineering hires and deployment infrastructure.

The company is framed around Japan-made humanoids for labor-constrained industrial environments, and its pitch combines robot hardware with in-house Physical AI / foundation-model work rather than treating the body and model as separate products.

Shenzhen-based Astribot announced T1 as a semi-humanoid service robot platform starting at CNY 89,900, roughly $13,165, according to the company's launch post. It describes T1 as cable-driven, built around human-like dexterity and customizable AI computing, and positioned for VLA and manipulation applications across multiple service scenarios. Full product details are still thin.

https://youtu.be/qVdGU1-YkxY?si=Bql1Thx2q4FEHlmM

LimX Dynamics launched Luna as a full-size interactive humanoid. LimX lists Luna at 160 cm with 27 degrees of freedom and its second-generation Sys 0 engine. The company positions the platform for interactive and service environments such as exhibitions, malls, theme parks and research settings, with video-based dance learning and no-code task management in the product framing.

https://youtu.be/-lgo5xqgVko?si=aBz3aQ6W9dKjPU-_

Eden announced Eden I, an industrial semi-humanoid robot offered as an autonomous robotic service that customers can hire by the hour. Details on payload, autonomy level, deployment sites, pricing and production capacity are not yet public, so for now this belongs as an early commercialization signal rather than a full deployment datapoint.

https://x.com/ycombinator/status/2059650319680962672?s=20

Twolabs is pitching a robot meant to combine useful physical assistance with social interaction in care environments. The company says it is building humanoid robots for nursing homes, starting from the premise that elderly-care staff are overworked and residents often need more support than facilities can provide.

https://youtu.be/70T6AzTqIHc?si=nFUdgNxdj6ocvbWM

Product Watch

Booster Robotics has been visible in developer-platform contexts and is now in their own words moving into competition with the unitree G1 one of the most widely used and available platforms for r&d. Their team has made claims around a new T2 platform that it provides better specs and a cheaper price than the G1.

The stronger Booster signal is market momentum around its existing platform. Recently they reported that they completed nearly RMB 1 billion (~$140m) in financing, with Q1 2026 shipments up 500% year over year, January-February orders up more than 800%, and K1 shipments above 1,000 units across more than 20 countries and 400 clients.

https://youtu.be/kojfk9b_4Tk?si=Nlnv6wM1xnagXibN

Production

EngineAI added the clearest production-capacity signal in the window. It is reported that the Shenzhen company launched operations at its Honghualing intelligent manufacturing base, with the first batch of T800 humanoids rolling off the line and a separate 10,000-unit production line progressing at its Zhengzhou Yunzhi Science Park base. The same report frames the Shenzhen facility around one humanoid every 15 minutes.

The T800 is EngineAI's full-scale general-purpose humanoid line. EngineAI lists the T800 as a humanoid platform with 29 degrees of freedom, excluding the dexterous hand. The broader lineup also includes PM01, SE01, SA01, S2 and JS01, so the Honghualing base sits inside a wider bipedal, humanoid and quadruped product portfolio rather than a single-model launch.

https://youtu.be/3VBK_jZmagU?si=FxH4HeAivlRwQ2Yk

Research

AgiBot introduced BFM-2, a two-stage Motion-Between locomotion foundation model for embodied robots. Agibot reported that the model is designed to give robots stable motion interpolation and closed-loop dynamic execution from static, preset or random states, with demos showing recovery after being knocked down and autonomous balance restoration.

Any2Any was the strong independent humanoid research signal this week. The paper studies efficient cross-embodiment transfer for humanoid whole-body tracking, including Unitree G1/H1 and LimX Oli/Luna. The authors report transferring Sonic models pretrained on Unitree G1 to LimX Oli and Luna using 1% of the compute and data required for full training.

Hugging Face’s LeRobot added a low-cost humanoid leg platform at roughly $2,500, giving researchers and builders a cheaper way into biped control, simulation and robot-learning experiments. The signal is access: while industrial humanoids move toward deployments, open hardware is pushing the developer layer down the cost curve.

https://x.com/LeRobotHF/status/2057451182063251546?s=20

Market Structure

Unitree's public-market path became more visible this week. Caixin reported that the company is fast-tracking a Shanghai STAR Market IPO review scheduled for June 1, with a target valuation around USD 6.2 billion. Unitree is not only a humanoid company: it is also one of China's most visible quadruped suppliers, while its G1 and H1 platforms have made it a central name in humanoids. A listing would give the sector one of its clearest public-company reference points across both quadrupeds and humanoids.

DEEP Robotics adds a second legged-robotics public-market signal. Caixin reported that the company is seeking to raise about RMB 2.5 billion in a Shanghai listing. It is better known for quadruped inspection and field robots, but its DR-series humanoid work keeps it relevant to the wider legged-robotics capital-market map.

These are not the only Chinese names to watch, multiple others such as Leju Robotics, AgiBot, and Galbot are also on the same path. It was reported that Leju Robotics’ ChiNext IPO application has been officially accepted by the Shenzhen Stock Exchange. Meanwhile, indications suggest that AgiBot is attempting to accelerate its own public-market path by acquiring control of an already-listed company. Outside of mainland IPO queues, Galbot has taken a different approach; the firm locked in a massive 2.5 billion yuan financing round in March while reportedly laying the groundwork for a future Hong Kong listing.

For humanoids, UBTech and Rainbow Robotics remain among the clearer pure play publicly listed-company references, but the Chinese pipeline is moving quickly.

https://youtu.be/e0cIZgkTn4M?si=-KUQK_O-l6hajS4c

---

Have a robotics update Korthos should review? Send news, deployments, product releases, funding rounds, research, or media to [tips@korthos.xyz](mailto:tips@korthos.xyz) or reach out on X at @agkorthos.