Google partners with Agile Robots, growing its AI robotics footprint

Google partners with Agile Robots, growing its AI robotics footprint


Intrinsic’s flagship product, Flowstate, is a web-based platform that allows users to build robotic applications without having to write thousands of lines of code.

Intrinsic

Google is adding another robotics partnership to its belt as it leans into robotics as a key bet for artificial intelligence.

Agile Robots develops intelligent, sensor-based robotic arms and humanoid robots. The company announced a partnership with Google DeepMind to integrate its Gemini Robotics foundation models with Agile Robots’ hardware.

“The partnership is built on a belief that applying AI in the physical world will be transformative,” the Tuesday blog post states. “By bringing together Agile Robots’ hardware and other AI robotic solutions developed in Germany, with Google DeepMind’s Gemini Robotics foundation models, the two teams will improve performance via robot deployment, data collection, model training and iteration.”

The new partnership means Google will get real-world deployment data as it sees robotics as one of the large use cases for AI, competing against companies like Amazon and Tesla. It also shows the company is making several robotics partnerships as it leans into manufacturing as key use case.

Munich-based Agile Robots already has more than 20,000 deployed robotic systems globally and it will integrate Google’s tech in existing industrial robots at scale, the blog post says. The partnership will first focus on “high-value industrial” use cases such as manufacturing tasks.

This research partnership is an important step in bringing the impact of AI to the real world,” said Carolina Parada, Senior Director and Head of Robotics, Google DeepMind, in Tuesday’s blog post. She added that Agile Robots will help Google develop “more advanced AI models for the next generation of robots.”

In mid-2025, Google debuted two new AI models, Gemini Robotics and Gemini Robotics-ER (extended reasoning), bringing generative AI into physical action commands to control robots. Google said in a blog post at the time that it would partner with Apptronik, a Texas-based robotics developer, to “build the next generation of humanoid robots with Gemini 2.0.”

In January, Google’s DeepMind said it would work with Hyundai’s Boston Dynamics, formerly a division of Google, to develop new AI models for its Atlas robot.

Last month, Google DeepMind announced that Intrinsic, a robotics software company, will be moved from the “Other Bets” category into the main company with hopes of being “The Android of robotics.” The company said it will focus on the manufacturing industry and work with Google’s Gemini and infrastructure teams, including potentially helping it with building out Google’s own data centers.   

An early sign that the company was getting serious about robotics was in its hiring of key talent last year. In November, Google’s DeepMind unit hired the former CTO of Boston Dynamics Aaron Saunders.

However, Google’s increased attention to robotics has also brought along internal skepticism.

Boston Dynamics, for example, has long-standing contracts with the Defense Department, and some DeepMind employees reportedly brought up concern at an all-hands meeting earlier this year, according to Business Insider.

It’s not just a trend at Google. Robotics is surfacing as a key use case for AI across the tech industry.

In February, Bedrock Robotics, an autonomous vehicle technology startup for construction machinery founded by veterans of Waymo and Segment, raised $270 million in a new fundraising round, valuing the two-year-old start-up at $1.75 billion.

The round was led by Alphabet’s investment arm CapitalG, Valor Atreides A.I. Fund; Nvidia’s venture arm and previous backer 8VC.

Schaeffler CEO: Humanoid robots and defence are key growth drivers
Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.



Source

Amazon to buy Globalstar to bolster Leo satellite business in deal worth about .5 billion
Technology

Amazon to buy Globalstar to bolster Leo satellite business in deal worth about $11.5 billion

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket is on the launch pad carrying Amazon’s Project Kuiper internet network satellites, which are expected to eventually rival Elon Musk’s Starlink system, at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on April 9, 2025. Steve Nesius | Reuters Amazon said Tuesday it would acquire Globalstar […]

Read More
JPMorgan earnings, Oracle’s 0 million windfall, new Delta suites and more in Morning Squawk
Technology

JPMorgan earnings, Oracle’s $300 million windfall, new Delta suites and more in Morning Squawk

This is CNBC’s Morning Squawk newsletter. Subscribe here to receive future editions in your inbox. Good morning. If you’re looking for someone to blame for the rising cost of your Netflix subscription, you might take a look at Wall Street. CNBC’s Sarah Whitten and Lillian Rizzo explain how investors’ focus on profitability is prompting streamers to hike […]

Read More
Suspect in attack at Sam Altman’s house aimed to kill OpenAI CEO, warned of humanity’s extinction from AI
Technology

Suspect in attack at Sam Altman’s house aimed to kill OpenAI CEO, warned of humanity’s extinction from AI

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman attends an event to pitch AI for businesses in Tokyo, Feb. 3, 2025. Kim Kyung-hoon | Reuters A man accused of throwing a lit Molotov cocktail at the home of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s home last week was trying to kill him, and was motivated by hatred of artificial intelligence technology, […]

Read More