Beyond artificial intelligence

Humanoid race gets into full swing, already a billion-dollar market

The era of robotics is undergoing an epochal transformation: from mechanical arms confined in the safety cages of factories, we are moving on to autonomous machines with human features

23 June 2025

3' min read

For decades, the humanoid robot has been a mainstay of science fiction, a symbol of a future as fascinating as it is distant. Servants, companions or, in the darkest narratives, antagonists, they have populated our collective imagination. The era of robotics is undergoing an epochal transformation: from mechanical arms confined to the safety cages of factories, we are moving on to autonomous machines with human features, designed to walk, interact and work alongside us. The most media-savvy of the examples is Tesla's Optimus. Initially presented with some scepticism, the Elon Musk-led project has gained credibility over time. So has Figure AI, which produces the robot of the same name based on an in-house platform, Helix, after its divorce from OpenAI.

And then Amazon, determined to focus on courier-robots to increase deliveries and not lose the race for a market, that of humanoids, which will be worth 38 billion dollars in the next 10 years, according to Goldman Sachs.

Tesla Optimus

Tesla continues to lose pieces. The latest is Milan Kovacic, a top executive in the Optimus project. But the company is not standing still, quite the contrary. In May, it posted new videos showing the humanoids dancing and cleaning. Optimus has also posed with Kim Kardashian and is part of Musk's plan to colonise Mars. The entrepreneur has claimed that his Optimus could one day generate $10 trillion in sales, creating a market in both the corporate and private sectors for use in everyday life, including housework and childcare. In its recent updates, Optimus retains the same appearance to which we have become accustomed. It is under the shell that is the real novelty: the robot bases its activities on a single neural network, which makes decision-making faster, on average processed in 3 milliseconds.

Figure 03

The answer to Tesla is Figure AI, a new name in the industry that OpenAI had also bet on. The evolution is Generation 03, presented on social media by founder Brett Adcock with a peremptory 'it is the most powerful hardware I have ever seen'. A real revolution, involving both mechanical and logical aspects. Helix is a proprietary operating system based on a 'vision-language-action' (VLA) model. This technology allows robots to interpret commands expressed in natural language and perform complex tasks without the need for specific prior programming. On 7 June on X, Adcock posted an hour-long video in which Figure is seen performing manual tasks in the factory, mostly grappling with bags and understanding objects other than those for which it has been programmed. Helix can switch from sorting packages autonomously to passing them directly to a human colleague. The robot acts following a real-time indication from a supervisor and not after an upgrade in the laboratory, which further speeds up its induction into the factory and growth in tasks.

Digit from Agility Robotics

Less conspicuous than the others but perhaps more useful.

The new version of Digit, developed by Agility Robotics, features a head with functional eyes equipped with advanced sensors that enhance the ability to interact with the environment and move with precision. The hands have also been redesigned to provide far greater dexterity when manipulating objects. Thanks to its bipedal design, Digit can operate in working spaces designed for humans, such as factories and warehouses, without requiring infrastructural modifications. The fields of application are many, from logistics to industrial inspection, but it is all

the philosophy behind the project to be interesting: not the total replacement of workers, but collaboration. Digit is conceived as a technological partner for human operators, capable of working alongside them in hybrid environments, marking an important evolution towards a more anthropomorphic and collaborative industrial automation. That said, it is capable of performing the same actions we have repeatedly seen with Boston Dynamics' robots: walking, stepping on pavements, crouching and manipulating objects weighing up to 35 kg.

Apollo by Apptronik

The Texan company Apptronik has been working with Mercedes-Benz for years to experiment with putting humanoids on assembly lines. The next step was to make Apollo, this is the name of the company's latest artefact, a 'member' of any family in the world. Just over one metre tall, 70 kilos in weight and with 4 hours of autonomy, it will still take time for the robot to be commercialised for the masses, but that is the goal. It has 4 hours of autonomy and can be plugged into a wall socket to run continuously. In this case, watch your step. Apollo's future is bright: in February, Apptronik raised $350 million in a funding round led by B Capital and Capital Factory, which also involved Google.