GXO Adds 2 US Sites for Agility's Digit Humanoid

GXO Logistics will put Agility Robotics’ Digit humanoid robots to work at two more US warehouses, in Statesville, North Carolina and Lebanon, Tennessee, with deployments expected to begin in early 2027, the companies said on Monday.

The expansion takes Digit beyond the single GXO site in Flowery Branch, Georgia where it has worked since 2024. GXO, the world’s largest pure-play contract logistics company, said in its announcement that the robots will handle “highly repetitive material-handling tasks” for e-commerce fulfilment at the new sites. Neither company disclosed how many robots are involved or what GXO is paying.

The new sites will start with the current Digit 4 and move to Digit 5, the next-generation model Agility unveiled on 15 September, once it is commercially available. Agility’s own update puts early customer access to Digit 5 in the first half of 2027 and general availability at the end of 2027.

In brief

GXO will deploy Agility’s Digit humanoid at sites in Statesville, North Carolina and Lebanon, Tennessee from early 2027, after two years at one Georgia warehouse.
No robot numbers or financial terms were disclosed. The sites start on Digit 4 and move to Digit 5 when it is available.
Agility also disclosed three more manufacturing customers in paid programmes, all unnamed, ahead of its Nasdaq listing.

From one Georgia warehouse to three sites

GXO and Agility started with a proof-of-concept pilot at Flowery Branch in late 2023. In June 2024 they signed a multi-year robots-as-a-service agreement, which GXO describes as the first formal commercial deployment of humanoid robots in live operations and the first such agreement for humanoids. Under it, Digit works alongside existing automation, moving plastic totes and placing them onto conveyors, managed through Agility Arc, the company’s cloud software for running robot fleets.

GXO says Digit has moved more than 100,000 totes at Flowery Branch. Across all its customers, Agility says the robot has logged more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation.

“This expansion reflects our confidence in the technology’s ability to create measurable value for our customers and a better working environment for our teams,” said Patrick Kelleher, GXO’s chief executive. Agility’s chief executive, Peggy Johnson, said that “expanding to additional sites is the clearest signal that the value is real”, adding: “Customers are moving beyond asking whether humanoid robots can work to deciding where they can scale them.”

Agility adds three unnamed manufacturers and a defence pipeline

Agility used the GXO news to set out the rest of its customer list. It said three more manufacturing customers are in paid programmes: a major global automaker that sells more than three million vehicles a year, one of the largest developers of automotive technology and components, and a global consumer-products maker. All three asked not to be named.

They join existing customers including AGCO, which agreed last week to pilot Digit at its Hesston, Kansas plant from 2027, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, Mercado Libre and Schaeffler, an Agility investor that is also building its own humanoids at a new factory in Taicang, China.

Agility says it is talking to more than 30 prospective customers, including two potential subcontractor engagements supporting a branch of the US armed services. It says those talks are at an early stage and nothing has been signed. It also repeated a figure it had disclosed before: more than $300 million in “committed multi-year orders” for Digit 5. The company’s own caveat is that this represents potential value over several years, depends on contractual milestones and product specifications, and “does not represent current-period revenue”.

To build the robots, Agility points to RoboFab, its 70,000 sq ft factory in Salem, Oregon, which it says is designed for up to 10,000 robots a year.

A second site is evidence, but GXO has not called it a payoff

The timing is not accidental. Agility is heading to Nasdaq through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, a blank-cheque company, which it expects to close in the fourth quarter under the ticker AGLT. The deal’s registration statement was declared effective on 13 October, and a list of paying customers is exactly what a company wants in front of shareholders before a vote.

The stronger signal is where GXO is putting Digit. A repeat order from the first commercial customer, at sites it chose, says more than any pilot. It is still a cautious one. On GXO’s second-quarter earnings call in August, Kelleher said: “We have not achieved ROI on humanoids yet. I think we are a couple of years away from that.” He told analysts GXO had run 45 humanoid pilots so far and that “in production, zero will be humanoids this year”, a point A3’s write-up of the call put in its headline.

Starting the new sites on Digit 4 while waiting for Digit 5 may also say something about readiness. The newer robot is designed for “cooperatively safe” work close to people, which matters in busy fulfilment centres, and that capability will not reach these sites until Digit 5 is commercially available. Rivals are making louder claims, from Tesla saying Optimus production has begun to Figure locking the design of its next robot, but Agility’s case rests on a narrower point: a logistics company that has paid to run Digit for two years wants more of it.

The number to watch is how many robots arrive in Statesville and Lebanon next year, which neither company has said.