Google partners with Agile Robots, growing its AI robotics footprint

In this articleGoogle 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.Got a confidential news tip? We want to hear from you.Sign up for free newsletters and get more CNBC delivered to your inboxGet this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services.© 2026 Versant Media, LLC.

All Rights Reserved. A Versant Media Company. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. Global Business and Financial News, Stock Quotes, and Market Data and Analysis. Data also provided by