Humanoid signs binding Robot-as-a-Service deal with Schaeffler — thousands of wheeled units across global plants by 2032, plus a five-year actuator supply agreement going back the other way
UK-based Humanoid disclosed a binding, phased deployment contract with German motion-technology giant Schaeffler covering a four-digit number of wheeled humanoid robots across Schaeffler's global manufacturing sites through 2032. The agreement is structured as Robot-as-a-Service and is paired with a separate five-year supply contract under which Schaeffler will manufacture more than half of Humanoid's joint actuators — making this a two-way procurement, not a one-way robot sale.
The interesting piece is the actuator supply clause. Most disclosed humanoid procurement deals to date have been one-directional — customer buys robots, supplier ships robots — which makes them readable as pilots regardless of how the press release frames the unit count. The Schaeffler deal inverts part of that flow: Schaeffler is committing to supply a seven-digit number of joint actuators to Humanoid over five years, covering more than 50% of Humanoid's demand. That is a tier-one industrial supplier integrating itself into the supply chain of a robot vendor it is also a customer of, which is the move a buyer makes when it has decided the category is durable demand rather than a one-quarter capex experiment.
The deployment schedule is concrete: phased rollout begins December 2026 and runs through June 2027 at two German Schaeffler sites — Herzogenaurach (focused on box-handling in a live production environment) and Schweinfurt (three-month capability demonstration, then three-month on-site stability validation). The total program targets a four-digit unit count across Schaeffler's global facilities by 2032. Pricing is not disclosed but the RaaS structure means Humanoid carries residual-value risk and Schaeffler pays against measured availability, removing the depreciation-schedule argument that has stalled most enterprise humanoid procurement to date.
Read alongside BMW's Leipzig expansion of the Figure 03 pilot, the deal closes part of the willingness-to-pay question that's hung over the sector since 2024. The two largest disclosed Western humanoid deployments are now both inside German industrial procurement regimes — which is the most demanding integration environment a humanoid vendor can sell into.
Robotics and Automation News — Humanoid and Schaeffler strike deal to deploy thousands of humanoid robots in factories → · Assembly Magazine — Schaeffler to Deploy Thousands of Humanoid Robots → · Robotics Tomorrow — Humanoid Secures Landmark Deal with Schaeffler →