GXO Logistics and Apptronik announced a letter of intent on November 12 to scale up trials of the Apollo humanoid robot in live warehouse operations, with an eventual target of deploying up to 1,000 units globally over the next four years. The companies said initial commercial deployment would begin in North America in late 2027, structured through a robotics-as-a-service model rather than an outright purchase.
The agreement builds on a partnership the two companies began in 2024. GXO ran an initial pilot earlier in 2026 and evaluated Apollo against more than 50 distinct logistics tasks at Apptronik's testing facility, known as Robot Park, before agreeing to expand trials. GXO CEO Patrick Kelleher called humanoid robots "the latest evolution of intelligent automation," while Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas said GXO "has the network and the operating discipline to take this technology to real scale."
What would Apollo actually do in a warehouse?
The expanded trials cover goods-to-person and person-to-goods picking, case and tote handling, packing and sortation — the repetitive movement tasks that make up a large share of warehouse labor. Apollo stands roughly 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs about 160 pounds, and can lift payloads up to 55 pounds on a roughly four-hour battery charge before needing to swap or recharge.
Crucially, the full 1,000-unit rollout is conditional. GXO and Apptronik have set joint performance, safety and operational key performance indicators that the robots must hit during the 2027 trials before the companies commit to scaling further. That structure — pilot first, firm numbers later — mirrors how most humanoid deployment deals in logistics have been announced so far, rather than guaranteeing a fixed purchase order today.
How does this compare to other warehouse humanoid deals?
GXO already runs Agility Robotics' Digit humanoid in its warehouses, where more than 30 prospective customers have reportedly lined up to evaluate the robot. Adding Apptronik's Apollo gives GXO a second humanoid platform to test in parallel, a hedge against betting its automation roadmap on a single robot maker. Apptronik, for its part, has been diversifying beyond logistics — Apollo recently ran on a live Mercedes-Benz production line using Google's robotics model, hitting a reported 96% task accuracy.
The broader logistics robotics market has moved quickly toward this kind of staged, KPI-gated agreement. Humanoid robot makers need large customers willing to run extended field trials to prove reliability, while logistics operators like GXO want to avoid committing capital to unproven hardware. A four-year, conditional, service-based structure lets both sides claim progress — a large headline number for Apptronik, and no binding financial exposure for GXO — without either company guaranteeing results yet.
What happens next?
The expanded trials are set to begin in 2027, with commercial deployment following in North America later that year if KPIs are met. Neither company has disclosed which GXO warehouse sites will host the trials, how many robots will be involved initially, or what the RaaS pricing will look like. Those details, along with whether Apollo can match its production-line accuracy numbers in the messier environment of goods-to-person picking, will determine whether the 1,000-unit target becomes reality or another unmet humanoid robotics projection.