Some companies want to their humanoid robots to fold clothes. Others want them in the workplace. Sankaet Pathak and his startup Foundation Future Industries have a slightly different goal: to produce an all-American robot super-soldier.
Pathak, the Foundation’s CEO, says his company plans to start equipping humanoids with lethal abilities soon, although he declined to provide details. “We are studying several kinetic objects,” he tells WIRED. (He means weapons systems). “We will probably reveal something in the next few months,” he adds. The company claims that beyond combat, its robots can be useful in logistics, reconnaissance and inspections.
The US military has long been interested in humanoids. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency funded major humanoid competitions from 2012 to 2015, and the Army runs a program called xTechHumanoids that funds the development of technologies crucial to “militarized humanoid capabilities.” Military forces around the world are rapidly researching and deploying novel autonomous or semi-autonomous systems, including aerial drones, tiny craft and compact vehicles. Legged systems can traverse more complex terrain, and it is hoped that humanoids will be able to take on many of the tasks currently performed by human soldiers. The war in Ukraine served as a laboratory for the development and testing of many of these systems; The foundation says it has tested its Phantom MK1 humanoid with Ukrainian forces.
It is unique in targeting the military market and has been profitable so far. The company has government contracts worth millions of dollars and major sponsors eager to spread its message: Eric Trump, the president’s son, is both an investor and the company’s chief strategic advisor. “People don’t realize that he’s an engineer at heart, so he does a lot of milling and stuff like that at home,” Pathak says.
In an April 23 interview with Fox Business, Trump bragged about the company’s bots. “When you go up and interact with these robots and they punch you and high-five you and follow your commands,” he said. “The introduction of AI autonomy will change industry, it will change military applications, it will change hospitality. The applications are endless and I think it’s a very beautiful thing.”
The foundation was established in 2024. A few months later, it acquired Boardwalk Robotics, which worked closely with the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC), a nonprofit research institute in Florida known for its work on humanoid robots.
During Trump’s segment on Fox, the host touted the company’s winning of a “$24 million contract with the Pentagon,” although that seems a bit vague: When WIRED asked for more information about the Foundation contracts, the company shared details about two contracts it inherited from Boardwalk and three it received through IHMC. The company does not appear to have secured novel funding from the government on its own.
Still, some people think it’s a promising niche. “Wearing a military hat makes sense because soldiers still die there – the first time they walk in the door,” says a worker familiar with the foundation who asked to remain anonymous so as not to influence business relations. “If we look at Fallujah, the first Gulf War, several thousand insurgents were hiding in 10,000 buildings and [US troops] I just go door to door.”
“I think this is so close to being feasible that I’m surprised they haven’t been put on display yet,” they add.
However, like other humanoid companies, the Foundation often depicts its robots performing tasks autonomously, and other experts say that fully autonomous robot soldiers are a distant dream at best.
“Right now, it’s hard to separate the current state of the art from the potential of cutting-edge technology” when it comes to humanoids, says Robert Griffin, a senior robotics scientist at IHMC who led one project involving Boardwalk and served as a technical advisor to the company. “There are a number of challenges that run the gamut of robotics with the idea of building a real human soldier,” Griffin says.