SoftBank in Talks to Back Agile Robots in $800 Million Funding Round

Key Takeaways

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• SoftBank is in early-stage talks to invest more than $300 million into an $800 million funding round for Agile Robots.
• Agile Robots develops both software and hardware, including its industrial-grade Agile ONE humanoid platform, which was recently added to the NVIDIA Cosmos Coalition.
• The deal reinforces SoftBank’s multi-billion-dollar pivot toward industrial automation and foundation models, following its massive $1.4 billion investment in Skild AI.
• The broader robotics sector continues to experience explosive capital inflows, driven by generative AI software moving from digital spaces into physical manufacturing and logistics.

The Capital Flywheel Moves to Munich

The massive wave of capitalization flowing into the physical AI sector shows no signs of slowing down. German industrial robotics startup Agile Robots is currently in discussions to raise approximately $800 million in a new funding round, with SoftBank Group Corp. positioned as a primary backer. According to a report from Bloomberg, SoftBank is in talks to contribute more than $300 million to the round.

Because the negotiations are in their early stages, representatives for both Agile Robots and SoftBank have declined to comment, and the final terms or financial structures could still shift. However, if finalized, the deal would represent a continuation of SoftBank’s aggressive, multi-billion-dollar push to dominate the infrastructure layer of embodied artificial intelligence.

Software and Hardware Synergies

Founded in 2018 by researchers from the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Agile Robots has carved out a unique position in the robotics ecosystem by maintaining a vertically integrated development pipeline. Unlike software-only startups, the Munich-headquartered firm develops both intelligent operating software and physical hardware, spanning warehouse machines, robotic arms, and bipedal humanoids.

The company's hardware portfolio is anchored by the Agile ONE humanoid platform, a 174 cm tall biped designed specifically as a "co-worker" for complex factory floor tasks. Agile Robots has increasingly positioned its hardware as a premier vehicle for frontier AI models. The company recently entered a high-profile strategic research partnership with Google DeepMind to bring Gemini Robotics foundation models to the factory floor, opening up a critical feedback loop of real-world industrial data.

More recently, Agile Robots was named as a founding member of NVIDIA's Cosmos Coalition, a global collaboration aimed at standardizing open-weights physical AI foundation models. Agile is utilizing NVIDIA’s Cosmos 3 architecture to generate action-conditioned trajectories at scale for its policy development, reinforcing its status as a top-tier player in Europe's surging robotics cluster.

SoftBank's "Brains and Bodies" Thesis

For SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son, a renewed bet on Agile Robots represents a highly strategic piece of a larger robotics jigsaw puzzle. SoftBank previously led an earlier funding round for Agile Robots, but its broader historical track record with hardware—most notably the companion robot Pepper—struggled to find commercial viability.

The conglomerate’s modern strategy is far more pragmatic, split between robust industrial "bodies" and universal AI "brains":

• The Bodies: SoftBank acquired Swiss industrial robotics giant ABB Ltd.’s robotics division last year for $5.4 billion. It has also, reportedly, backed bipedal hardware players like Agility Robotics, the makers of Digit.
• The Brains: SoftBank led a historic $1.4 billion Series C round for Skild AI, valuing the "omni-bodied" software startup at over $14 billion.

By anchoring an $800 million round for Agile Robots, SoftBank bridges this gap entirely. Agile's existing global footprint—employing over 3,200 people across Germany, China, and India—provides SoftBank with immediate access to active industrial deployments and a proprietary dataset of real-world physical interactions.

A Hyper-Competitive Landscape

The capital infusion into Agile Robots reflects an industry-wide boom. According to PitchBook data, global investment into the robotics sector more than tripled year-over-year to reach $27.6 billion in 2025. Investors are eager to find platforms capable of translating digital breakthroughs in large transformers into real-world manipulation and locomotion.

The European market has become highly competitive. Germany's Neura Robotics recently closed a €1 billion ($1.2 billion) funding round backed by stablecoin issuer Tether.

Whether Agile Robots uses this impending war chest to scale production at its Bavarian manufacturing facilities or to accelerate its foundation model integrations, the deal underscores a clear reality: the race to deploy physical AI at commercial scale is no longer limited to the research lab. It is now a high-stakes battle of industrial capital and scaling data flywheels.