September Robotics Report: 36,000 Humanoids Sold in Six Months. 1,200 Went to Work on a Line.

September was the month humanoid output pulled ahead of paid work. Tesla now builds several hundred Optimus a week, and none of the units does paid work. Frost & Sullivan counts 36,000 humanoids sold worldwide in the first half, and 1,200 of them went onto a production line.

Money kept running ahead of both. Figure has raised under $2B in its life and on September 3 signed a compute commitment that starts at $3.5B. Agility’s 2025 net sales were $1.8M against a $140M operating loss, which puts its $2.5B valuation near 1,400x revenue. Then China’s securities regulator began window guidance on humanoid IPOs, and Reuters’ sources said some makers would lose 60% to 70% of revenue if sales tied to local governments were stripped out.

The floor-side numbers are small, but they now carry prices and dates. Digit rents for about $8,500 a month, Dongfeng’s Xiaodong enters a plant in October, Toyota named 400,000 robots across 60 plants from 2028, and Samsung is building robots for chip-fab maintenance. Zurich Airport pulled the safety drivers out of two shuttles and put them in a remote cockpit. Nobody was cut. The seat moved.

This issue works in that order: 9 signals, 3 structural judgments, 3 kinds of counter-evidence and 5 things to watch in October. The last section takes the industry-level read to your own role, industry and time window.