Servoservobrief.com, Sunday, November 8, 2026
A thin day led by ATI's rare US clearance for a factory humanoid, plus a close look at how cheaply China actually builds its robots.
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ATI's Sherpa Mecha becomes one of only two humanoids cleared for US sale
Update: The Department of War cleared five ATI platforms, including the Sherpa Mecha factory humanoid, from the FCC Covered List (the list that blocks foreign-built connected robots from new US sales) under notice DA 26-1181, dated October 30. ATI says it is one of only two humanoids cleared so far and the only one built for factory work, which lets it keep selling and servicing in the US while most imported rivals cannot. Mission success rate and factory counts are vendor-reported.
Read more on PR Newswire / Ati Robotics -
Teardown of Unitree's factory finds humanoids are still mostly hand-built
Founder Josef Chen toured Unitree's Hangzhou plant and, citing its IPO filings, found actuator production mostly manual: about $1.7M of machinery against nearly 32,000 robots made in 2025, with direct labor near 8% of cost. He argues that at US wages labor would run about 40% of cost, so the equipment that builds robots is where Western firms like Figure, 1X and Agility could compete. Figures are from Unitree filings, not independently audited.
Read more on Dealroom / Josef Chen on X -
Agility closes first day on Nasdaq up 2%, with thin reported sales
Update: Now trading as AGLT, Agility ended its first session at $11.49, about 2% above open. Press reports cite roughly $1.8M in sales against a $138M loss, framing the humanoid maker as early-revenue despite its public-market debut. The sales and loss figures are company-reported.
Read more on The Robot Report -
Humble Robotics raises $51M Series A less than a year after founding
Humble Robotics closed a $51M Series A led by Obvious Ventures, bringing total funding to $75M within a year of founding. No product specifics, deployment counts or customer names were disclosed, so the round is the only hard signal here.
Read more on AI Insider's Robotics Week in Review