Agility Robotics lost US$458.7m in nine months on US$361,000 of revenue

01Where the loss came from

Selling and administrative costs rose to US$194.7m from US$34.3m, and research and development to US$244.7m from US$62.5m.¹ Most of the rise was stock compensation, and the filing explains why. Until 30 June, Agility’s employee options were booked as liabilities, because the company could buy back shares from departing staff. A liability is revalued at fair value every reporting date, so as the company’s valuation rose, so did the expense: US$139.2m more in administration and US$146.8m more in research. On 30 June it dropped the buy-back right and the awards moved into equity.¹ Stock compensation is not cash: operations used US$131.6m. Without it, the loss would have been about US$143.9m.¹²

02Who pays, and what the listing raised

Agility either sells Digit or deploys it at a customer’s site while keeping ownership, billing over the service term. This year’s revenue came almost entirely from paid trials and services: Customer Acceleration Program engagements, which test Digit on a customer’s own tasks before a wider rollout, and professional services. Three customers paid 50%, 28% and 21% of it.² The filing names Schaeffler, GXO and Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada among the companies where the current Digit is deployed. Its successor, Digit 5, was shown on 15 September; early access is due in the first half of 2027.¹ One customer, also a related party, will receive 453 share warrants for every robot it sources if it sources at least 1,000.²

The listing was a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, a special-purpose acquisition company, at an equity value of US$2.5bn, or about US$10.29 a share. Holders of 25.5m of its shares took back US$261.8m in cash, leaving US$164.1m; with US$201.0m from new investors, gross proceeds were US$365.1m, plus US$100m raised through SAFE notes in July.³¹ The filing says that before the deal there was “substantial doubt” about Agility continuing as a going concern; with the US$334.1m of net proceeds, management says it has cash for at least twelve months.¹

The shares closed at US$7.36 on Friday 13 November, 36% below the US$11.51 of their first day, and traded at US$7.19 after hours at 7:58pm New York time.⁴ What to watch: the first deployments of Digit 5, and whether paid trials turn into robots sold or deployed. Another AI hardware maker’s filings, with revenue set against losses and a few large customers, are in our Analysis of Cerebras.