Updated Thu, Feb 13 2025 2:45 PM EST Tesla robotics development rival Apptronik announced a $350 million Series A funding round Thursday morning to scale the production of artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots. The funding round was co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory, and included backing from Google , CEO Jeff Cardenas said in an exclusive "Squawk Box" interview Thursday. Apptronik, a Texas-based robotics developer founded in 2016, previously raised $28 million and is currently working on deploying what the company calls a "groundbreaking" humanoid robot designed for industrial work named Apollo. Jeff Cardenas, Apptronik Apollo and Yemi A.D. at the Featured Session: Robotic Renaissance: The Dawn of Humanoid Innovation as part of SXSW 2024 Conference and Festivals held at the Hilton Austin in Austin, Texas, on March 14, 2024. Mike Jordan | Sxsw Conference & Festivals | Getty Images "What's happening in robotics is robots, with the power of AI, are becoming much more versatile," Cardenas said. "Now we're getting these robots out into the world in a pretty big way and scaling them up and going from industry and into the home in the future," Cardenas added. The new funding will allow the company to scale its robot development to potentially address applications such as manufacturing and health care. The robots will be trained separately from humans on repetitive tasks, Cardenas said, before they begin integrating into human life. Read more CNBC tech news