Google is building humanoid robots, hiring Boston Dynamics' ex-CTO for a 35,000-square-foot Massachusetts lab
Google DeepMind told the Boston Globe on October 15 that it is opening a robotics hardware lab in Watertown, Massachusetts, run by Boston Dynamics' former chief technology officer. The maker of the Gemini models demonstrated inside Apptronik's Apollo humanoid is moving into hardware the same month NVIDIA was reported to be adding $1 billion to full-stack rival Figure AI.
Richard Tang · 3 min read
Google DeepMind is moving from supplying robot brains to building robot bodies, and it hired a veteran of Boston Dynamics, the Waltham company known for its backflipping and dog-like robots, to lead the work. The Alphabet−2.37% — Alphabet, down 2.37 percent today lab confirmed to the Boston Globe on October 15 a robotics hardware lab in Watertown, Massachusetts, due to finish in 2027 1.
Aaron Saunders spent 22 years at Boston Dynamics and left as its chief technology officer before DeepMind hired him in 2025 1. He is now hiring machinists, engineers and researchers for the lab 1. The meaning for anyone allocating capital: physical AI's value is settling on companies that own the brain and the body together, and Google is moving to own both ends.
The lab is Google hiring the middle of the chain
Google's robot intelligence has so far run in other companies' machines. Gemini Robotics 2 was demonstrated on Apptronik's~$1B — Apptronik, private, latest valuation ~$1B Apollo humanoid in July 2, and on October 13 the Gemini 4 Argon model watched video of a person playing cornhole, wrote its own physics simulation and landed seven straight throws on an Apollo 34.
What stands between that demo and a robot that earns a full shift is the part the camera skips: hands, arms and onboard compute designed around the model, then a production line to build them. A 35,000-square-foot lease signed this summer is Google paying to close that gap in-house 1. The Globe also reports DeepMind is developing its own humanoid, one that walks, talks and handles delicate tasks 1.
The partner already named the risk
Apptronik, the Austin startup whose Apollo carries those demos, has heard the plan stated plainly. Chief executive Jeff Cardenas says Google told the company from the start it is building "the Android for robotics," a model that "will go to many different partners" 3. Demis Hassabis, DeepMind's chief executive, has described the strategy in the same Android terms 2.
Android, in time, built its own phones. A body-maker whose brain is licensed from a supplier that now runs its own hardware lab is negotiating from the weaker side of the table.
Capital already priced the full stack
Figure AI$34.22B — Figure AI, private, latest valuation $34.22B, the humanoid startup whose robots ran eleven months of daily shifts at BMW's Spartanburg plant, trains its models on NVIDIA's−1.30% — NVIDIA, down 1.30 percent today chips 5. NVIDIA is reported to be discussing another $1 billion into the company, a deal neither firm has confirmed 56. The round would land near the $39 billion mark Figure set in September 2025, when NVIDIA first invested 6.
Figure owns its whole chain: the Helix model that runs its robots 6 and the BotQ factory that builds them 5. That price sits above Goldman Sachs'−1.15% — Goldman Sachs, down 1.15 percent today forecast for the entire humanoid market of 2035 5. Apptronik raised at about $5 billion this year, in a round Google itself co-led 38.
Figure AI's $39B round mark tops Goldman's forecast for the entire 2035 humanoid market
- Estimate
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Figure AI, Sept 2025 round | $39 |
| Goldman Sachs 2035 market forecast (estimate) | $38 |
| Apptronik, Feb 2026 round | $5 |
Jabil is the listed test
The only listed company in Apollo's chain is Jabil−3.08% — Jabil, down 3.08 percent today, the contract manufacturer that helps build the robot 37. The segment holding that work, Intelligent Devices & Robotics, is guided down 2 percent to $5.3 billion for the coming fiscal year 7. The racks, power and cooling that carry Jabil's AI growth sit in another segment, guided up 43 percent 7.
Alphabet and NVIDIA are the listed names on the brain side of this chain. The December quarter decides whether Apollo is a program or a demo: volumes have to appear in the shrinking line, or the humanoid stays optionality while data centers pay Jabil's bills 7.
A lease, a hire and a reported term sheet
None of this argues against physical AI reaching factory floors; what is observable today is a lease, a hire and a reported term sheet, and they point the same way. Model owners are buying or building the bodies, and the suppliers of single links hold negotiable positions. The distance between a capable model and a working robot is engineering and manufacturing. This month, Google and NVIDIA both decided to own it.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
