Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — November 25, 2025 — Humanoid, a UK-based AI and robotics company, launched the Middle East’s first dedicated humanoid robotics showroom in collaboration with QSS AI & Robotics, Saudi Arabia’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence company focused on localizing advanced technologies. The launch marks a bold step forward for AI innovation in the region and forms part of a strategic partnership designed to accelerate humanoid deployment across key sectors in the Kingdom.

The Humanoid Lounge showroom offers visitors an immersive view of the future of automation, with live demonstrations, educational workshops, and direct interaction with the latest humanoid robots. At the opening, HMND 01 Alpha Wheeled, the UK’s first industrial humanoid robot, performed live simulation and teleoperation tasks, giving attendees the unique opportunity to experience human-robot interaction firsthand through a “talk to a robot” feature.

Built by Humanoid in just seven months, HMND 01 Alpha Wheeled exemplifies the company’s advanced engineering capabilities and represents one of the fastest development cycles for a humanoid robot, an achievement that allowed for immediate real-world testing and validation. Within 18 months since its foundation, Humanoid completed four commercial Proofs of Concept, demonstrating both the robot’s industrial readiness and the company’s ability to transition cutting-edge humanoid technology from prototype to near-term deployment.

As part of the partnership, Humanoid and QSS have established a pre-order framework for up to 10,000 humanoid units over five years, marking one of the largest commitments to humanoid robotics in the Middle East. QSS will serve as Humanoid’s exclusive partner in Saudi Arabia and oversee local assembly at the Riyadh Robotics Factory, enabling rapid broad deployment across manufacturing, logistics, energy, retail, and public infrastructure.

“Saudi Arabia is moving faster than any region in the world to integrate humanoid robotics into industrial use. Opening a showroom with QSS is just one step toward creating a gateway for businesses to experience robotics firsthand and scale automation with confidence. This partnership turns advanced engineering into practical impact across every major sector in the Kingdom,” said Artem Sokolov, Founder and CEO of Humanoid.

“Our collaboration with Humanoid marks a new chapter for Saudi Arabia’s robotics industry. By combining their global expertise with our local manufacturing capabilities and Vision 2030 alignment, we are laying the foundation for large-scale deployment. This is how we transform the Kingdom into a regional hub for advanced robotics,” added Dr. Elie Metri, CEO of QSS.

Saudi Arabia is rapidly scaling its industrial robotics capabilities as part of its Vision 2030 strategy to diversify the economy and drive high-tech growth. The Kingdom’s industrial robotics market, valued at $178.2 million in 2024, is projected to reach $543.7 million by 2033, reflecting a robust compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.8%.

About Humanoid 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 180 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications. For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai

About QSS AI & Robotics

QSS AI & Robotics is a Saudi company pioneering robotics and artificial intelligence manufacturing & localization in alignment with Vision 2030. Established in Riyadh, QSS designs, manufactures, and deploys advanced robotic systems and AI, including SARA and MOHAMAD, the first Saudi-made humanoid robots. With its dedicated R&D division, AI software development labs, and the first Saudi robotics factory, QSS leads national efforts in automation, AI integration, and smart technology manufacturing.

London, November 5 — Humanoid, a UK-based AI and robotics company, announced a collaboration with SAP to develop and demonstrate real-world robotics solutions. Together, the companies will explore the integration of cognitive humanoid robots into industrial and enterprise environments through a series of Proofs of concept (POCs) combining Humanoid’s latest HMND 01 platform with SAP’s enterprise software solutions, addressing a market estimated at $15–20 billion by 2030, equivalent to 300,000–400,000 robots, with longer-term projections of $38 billion by 2035.

The first joint pilot is planned with Martur Fompak International, a first-tier supplier and solution partner for automotive seating and interior systems. The global manufacturer plans to deploy Humanoid’s modular humanoid platforms to explore automation of complex seat-assembly processes. The proof-of-concept focuses on intelligent kitting — selecting diverse seat components from organized bins and placing them precisely into containers bound for the production line alongside tote handling from storage to production. The POC will integrate directly with SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) for real-time inventory and order management.

This cognitive robotics solution addresses the complexity of automotive seat production, where numerous configuration variants demand precise component selection and coordinated assembly. SAP’s proof-of-concept embodied-AI agents provide business-context awareness, enabling robots to understand production schedules, customer specifications, and quality requirements while maintaining seamless integration with existing manufacturing workflows. 

The initial in-house POC results of the intelligent kitting use case have been demonstrated at SAP’s TechEd event in Berlin in November 2025.

Through this partnership, SAP will contribute its deep business process and enterprise software expertise, while Humanoid will provide experience in cognitive robotics systems. Both companies will explore further collaboration opportunities: building their solutions on each other’s platforms, integrating them into their portfolio, and enabling data exchange. 

“This partnership is an important step toward bringing humanoid robotics into enterprise operations at scale,” said Artem Sokolov, founder of Humanoid. “Together with SAP, we’re exploring how cognitive robots can extend automation beyond the factory floor, into every environment where people work.”

“Embodied AI represents a fundamental shift in how robots understand and respond to business needs,” said Philipp Herzig, CTO of SAP SE. “We look forward to exploring the potential of our embodied AI agents together with Humanoid. The first proof of concept in the manufacturing industry allows us to demonstrate how humanoid robots can act as extensions of an organization’s operations by providing business context awareness and integration with existing workflows.”

About Humanoid: 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 180 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai

London, October 29 — Humanoid, a UK-based robotics and AI company, has successfully completed a Proof of Concept (POC) with Schaeffler using its pre-alpha robot. The project showcased Humanoid’s robot in a real-world use case: bin picking of metallic bearing rings in clutter, carried out in a near-production setting at the Schaeffler site in Erlangen, Germany.

The task involved continuously picking bearing rings from bins at a static station using the robot’s parallel grippers, transferring them to a buffer table for further processing, and moving between stations. According to Schaeffler’s and Humanoid’s analysis, traditional automation systems such as robotic arms or cobots, suffer from low utilization and limited ROI for this use case, while humanoid robots bring clear advantages. These include mobility for multi-machine operation, AI models that generalize skills across many ring types, and autonomous correction capabilities for real-time regrasp.

The POC results fully met the established expectations This way the Humanoid team demonstrated its ability to develop new skills rapidly, fine-tune performance on-site, and transfer policies from lab environments into real-world facilities with minimal adjustments.

To support the POC, Humanoid built a physical twin in its lab and used teleoperation with leader arms to collect training data. This data was used to fine-tune a pre-trained VLA model. Required cameras and sensors were integrated directly into the robot, minimizing installation requirements.

“At Humanoid, early POCs are one of our key priorities because they allow us to iterate faster — to go into the real world as early as possible and learn what our future customers truly need. This project proved that even at the pre-alpha stage, our platform can deliver tangible value in operational settings. We see high potential for more operational applications with humanoids at Schaeffler’s factories,” said Artem Sokolov, founder of Humanoid.

 
“Humanoid robotics plays a crucial role in the production of the future. Schaeffler plans to deploy a significant number of humanoid robots in its global manufacturing footprint. The successful proof of concept (POC) with Humanoid is another important milestone on this path. We look forward to making progress together in the next phase of the project leveraging our extensive expertise in manufacturing“, says Sebastian Jonas, Senior Vice President Advanced Production Technology at Schaeffler.

Looking ahead, both companies are discussing next steps and moving into the second phase of the POC in a production environment. This next phase will involve Humanoid’s alpha robot — the company’s first in-house designed and built platform. It will bring higher payload capacity, more advanced manipulation, and improved AI performance. The goal is to validate performance in realistic manufacturing conditions, including noise, dust, materials, and operational demands.

About Humanoid 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 170 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.

For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai

London, October 20 — Humanoid, a UK-based AI and robotics company, announced a strategic partnership with QSS AI & Robotics, Saudi Arabia’s leading robotics and artificial intelligence company pioneering the localization of advanced technologies under Vision 2030.. By combining Humanoid’s product innovation with QSS’s deep regional expertise, infrastructure, and government partnerships, the collaboration aims to accelerate the deployment and local manufacturing of humanoid robots across the Kingdom.

Under the agreement, QSS AI & Robotics will serve as Humanoid’s exclusive commercial,distribution, and localization partner in Saudi Arabia. The partnership will focus on introducing, deploying, and supporting Humanoid’s robots across key sectors, including manufacturing, logistics, retail, and infrastructure. 

Humanoid & QSS, together, will co-develop a localized market-entry strategy, ensuring full alignment with Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and its national digital transformation roadmap.

As part of the collaboration, QSS will utilize its state-of-the-art Robotics Factory in Riyadh, the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia, to explore localized assembly, customization, and support operations for Humanoid. This will enable sustainable scaling, cost efficiency, and faster market delivery.

The partners have also agreed on a non-binding pre-order framework of up to 10,000 humanoid units for the Saudi clients over the next five years, marking one of the largest potential humanoid deployments in the Middle East.

To further promote innovation and engagement, Humanoid and QSS will establish a flagship “Humanoid Lounge” in Riyadh, a co-branded experience centre that will showcase Humanoid’s latest robotics platforms. The lounge will feature live demos, customer experiences, and educational sessions, serving as a hub for collaboration and inspiration on the future of robotics in the Kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia represents one of the most forward-looking markets in the world when it comes to innovation,” said Artem Sokolov, founder of Humanoid. “This partnership is our first step into the MENA region, a market with immense potential for large-scale adoption of humanoid robots. Together with QSS, we aim to bring humanoid robotics from concept to reality, driving efficiency, safety, and progress across industries”.

“This partnership reinforces our mission to localize global technology within Saudi Arabia,” said Dr. Elie Metri, CEO of QSS AI & Robotics. “By combining Humanoid’s world-class engineering with our local manufacturing capabilities, ecosystem, and government alignment, we’re paving the way for a new era of humanoid robotics made, developed, and deployed from the heart of Saudi Arabia.”

About Humanoid 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 180 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.

For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai 

About QSS AI & Robotics

QSS AI & Robotics is a Saudi company pioneering robotics and artificial intelligence manufacturing & localization in alignment with Vision 2030. Established in Riyadh, QSS designs, manufactures, and deploys advanced robotic systems and AI, including SARA and MOHAMAD, the first Saudi-made humanoid robots. With its dedicated R&D division, AI software development labs, and the first Saudi robotics factory, QSS leads national efforts in automation, AI integration, and smart technology manufacturing.

Built in just seven months, HMND 01 Alpha prototype is the fastest-developed humanoid to date and the company has already completed its first commercial Proofs of Concept

UK-based robotics and AI company Humanoid today announced the launch of HMND 01 Alpha, the country’s first humanoid robot for industrial use. Built in just seven months, Alpha represents the fastest humanoid development cycle in history. Within its first founding year, Humanoid has already completed two commercial Proofs of Concept (POCs), positioning HMND 01 as the only industrial humanoid robot on track for commercial deployment within the next 12 months.

The launch comes as industries face widening shortages and productivity challenges. In the UK alone, manufacturers report more than 58,000 unfilled vacancies, while across Europe more than one in four manufacturers (26%) cite labour shortages as a critical barrier to growth and one of the sector’s biggest challenges. In the United States, the situation is even more severe, with around 600,000 jobs currently unfilled – a figure projected to rise to 2.1 million by 2030. Humanoid is targeting these challenges directly, starting with deployments in warehouses, logistics hubs, and retail facilities. Here, HMND 01 can take on repetitive, physically demanding tasks such as picking and sorting goods, machine feeding, kitting, loading and unloading inventory, and supporting packaging and fulfilment. By working alongside people in environments designed for humans, the robot boosts throughput, reduces errors, and improves working conditions – all without the costly infrastructure changes typical of traditional automation.

“Robots shouldn’t replace people, they should support them,” said Artem Sokolov, Founder of Humanoid. “After scaling my family’s manufacturing business, I saw firsthand the toll repetitive work took on employees, including my own grandparents. HMND 01 is built to fill the labour gaps, letting people to focus on more meaningful work. We are targeting a $38B industrial TAM, projected to reach $1T by 2050, with a clear path to market leadership in Europe. Globally, robot density averages 162 per 10,000 workers, and each additional robot can boost overall productivity by up to 7%, which means more output, fewer errors, and less strain on the team. That’s why we see HMND 01 not just as a machine, but as a step toward a more sustainable and human‑centred future of work.”

What sets Humanoid apart is its approach: a proprietary combination of 360° simulation training and real-world data flywheels. This dual system is already delivering tangible results – twice the development speed at half the cost compared to traditional methods. Standing 220 centimetres (cm) tall, Alpha is a wheeled humanoid that the team believes is the most robust wheeled robotic platform in the world. It can reach speeds of up to 7.2 kilometres per hour (km/h) and carry bimanual payloads of 15 kilograms (kg), with the ability to lift even more when objects are closer to the body. Its reach spans from the floor up to two metres, with shelf depths of up to 60 centimetres, allowing it to pick goods directly from the ground or from high storage locations. Alpha features 29 active degrees of freedom (DOF), excluding end-effectors, and is powered by AI-driven, end-to-end reasoning. Its end-effectors can be fitted with either a 12-DOF five-fingered hand or a 1-DOF parallel gripper, allowing the robot to adapt to tasks requiring either dexterity or simple/heavy handling. The head is equipped with 360-degree RGB cameras and two depth sensors for comprehensive perception.

HMND 01 Alpha is primarily designed for testing across industrial facilities, gathering insights on which functions are market-ready, which need refinement, and what new capabilities are required. These learnings will help to shape Beta wheeled robot, scheduled for launch in Q3 2026. 

Humanoid is backed by $50 million in founder-led capital and a 175-strong team that includes alumni from Apple, Tesla, Google, Boston Dynamics, Sanctuary AI, and Nvidia. Humanoid will operate on a Robots-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, enabling enterprise customers to achieve a fast ROI, with potential labour cost savings of up to 50% annually, while experiencing firsthand how intelligent humanoid robots can enhance productivity, improve working conditions, and transform the future of industrial work.

Humanoid, a UK-based robotics and AI company, is leading the next wave of humanoid robotics development. As one of the leading  companies in Europe to integrate NVIDIA Jetson Thor to the alpha prototype of its HMND 01 humanoid robot, and pioneering use of NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Cosmos simulation and synthetic data generation technologies, Humanoid is positioning the UK as the global leader of robotics innovation.

Humanoid is working with NVIDIA to push the boundaries of robotic capabilities, and is now expanding this collaboration by integrating the newly released NVIDIA Jetson Thor into its platforms. It equips the company’s HMND 01 robots with high-performance “robotic brain” allowing them to run multi-AI workflows and large-scale generative AI models. This enables robots to perform real-time, intelligent interactions with both people and their surroundings — a capability essential for industrial environments and, eventually, consumer applications.

NVIDIA Jetson Thor powers Humanoid’s alpha prototypes across two platforms: a wheeled system built for industrial settings such as logistics and retail, and a bipedal robot for future household applications.

With a focus on retail, logistics, and manufacturing, Humanoid is targeting industrial use cases as its first market. The company has already completed two Proofs of Concept (POCs) with commercial partners, marking its first steps into real-world deployment. 

By attracting talent from across Europe and beyond, in just one year the company has built a team of over 170 world-class experts. Backed by the fastest-growing robotics teams in Europe, Humanoid is driving the UK’s leadership in global robotics development and laying the foundation for future commercial rollouts. “With one of the world’s strongest talent pools in AI, engineering, and advanced manufacturing, the UK offers a rare level of expertise needed to build world-class robotic systems. London and the broader UK ecosystem combine deep academic research, startup culture, and access to global capital — a unique combination that allows to lead the next wave of humanoid robotics,” noted Artem Sokolov, founder of Humanoid. “We’re proud to contribute to the growth and innovation of the region.  Сollaborations with global leaders like NVIDIA position us to transform the potential of humanoid robotics into real-world impact.”

About Humanoid 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 170 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.

For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai

Humanoid announces the addition of two senior leaders to its executive team, bringing the company’s total headcount to over 160 world-class professionals across engineering, product, and business. These appointments reflect the company’s mission to build reliable, safe, and scalable robots for real-world tasks.

Boris Yangel, Head of AI

Joining as Head of AI, Boris Yangel brings more than 17 years of experience in solving problems using machine learning and deep learning. He has worked across a wide variety of domains, including image search, self-driving cars, protein-ligand interactions, voice assistants and LLM-based agents.  At Humanoid, he will lead the development of the company’s end-to-end AI systems, driving capabilities in perception, decision-making, and human-robot interaction. 

Before joining the team, he held the position of Head of AI at Nebius, one of the world’s leading AI infrastructure companies. He also spent over seven years at Yandex as a Staff Engineer, where he led teams developing natural language understanding technologies and applying deep learning methods to behavior prediction and planning challenges for self-driving vehicles. “For the last decade, AI has largely lived in the digital space, but the next frontier is physical. At Humanoid, we are building an integrated AI stack to power intelligent humanoid robots that can perceive, reason, and act in the real world, working safely and reliably alongside people. It is an ambitious challenge, and I am honored to lead the team towards achieving this goal,” he noted.

Jochen Rudat, Chief Growth & Revenue Officer

Also joining the leadership team is Jochen Rudat appointed as Chief Growth & Revenue Officer. He brings over a decade of leadership experience at Tesla, where he helped grow the European business and led key global projects. Since then, Jochen has been a business angel and advisor to startups turning big ideas into real products people love. As Humanoid expands its commercial efforts, he will lead global growth, customer acquisition, commercial strategy, and revenue operations. 

With these appointments, Humanoid strengthens its leadership team as the company moves toward unveiling its alpha prototype later this year. While engineering and deployment efforts continue to scale, the addition of experienced leaders in AI and commercial operations will help Humanoid drive the development and delivery of advanced humanoid robotic systems.

About Humanoid 

Humanoid is a UK-based robotics innovation company dedicated to developing advanced humanoid robots that enhance human capabilities. Founded by Artem Sokolov in 2024, Humanoid brings together over 160 engineers, researchers, and innovators from top global tech companies. With offices in London, Boston, and Vancouver, the company is focused on building commercially viable, scalable, and safe robotic solutions for real-world applications.

For media inquiries, interviews, or further information, please contact: og@thehumanoid.ai