A $1 billion valuation, a possible multi-billion-dollar Pentagon loan, and a founder who has testified twice before Congress: Standard Bots is betting that federal power, not Silicon Valley alone, will decide who wins the robotics race.

Evan Beard, just shy of 40, founded the company after teaching himself hardware in a cramped Manhattan apartment a decade ago. His robotic arm, the company says, can perform more than 300 jobs. Investors include RoboStrategy, General Catalyst and Amazon; customers range from small workshops to Amazon, Lockheed Martin and NASA. Two venture firms have offered to lead his next funding round, though Beard has accepted neither offer.

The Pentagon's interest is concrete. At 7:30 p.m. on a Friday this summer, while Beard was at dinner at a Long Island country club, Defense Department officials called to ask whether his robotic arms could launch drones from autonomous boats. "They were like, 'We want to get robots to Iran really quickly,'" Beard said. Standard Bots has no Defense Department contract, and its robots are not being used in Iran. The call, however, signals how seriously Washington now takes the sector.

Why is venture money flooding into robots?

Robotics and physical AI companies raised $33.4 billion globally in the first half of this year, surpassing the $28.7 billion raised in all of 2025 and up from just under $5 billion in 2020, according to PitchBook. Investors long wary of hardware are now drawn by AI's potential beyond chatbots and an intensifying technological race with China.

The US starts behind. Last year, Chinese companies Unitree and AgiBot together shipped 71% of the world's humanoid robots, according to research firm Omdia. Most US companies rely on Chinese suppliers for components or assembly, Stanford's 2026 Emerging Technology Review found.

Beard has responded by becoming a lobbyist. In two congressional appearances, he has called for federal loans to help manufacturers adopt robotics and trade barriers against state-subsidized Chinese competitors. He also backed restrictions the Federal Communications Commission imposed this summer on new models of foreign-made advanced robots. At a private summer meeting with executives from SpaceX and Boston Dynamics, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick warned of an approaching robotic arms race, according to notes reviewed by Politico. "We need to make sure they're produced in America," Lutnick said.

What does this change for US manufacturing?

Beard's stated goal: within a decade, build the world's largest robot manufacturer, producing everything in the US. His company's name, he says, nods to an ambition to one day rival Standard Oil's influence. "We're going to have raw materials coming, and robots going out," Beard said during a tour of his factory in Glen Cove, Long Island. "Henry Ford-style."

The gap between ambition and numbers is wide. Beard expects Standard Bots to produce 4,000 robots a year by the end of 2027 — roughly 10% of annual US industrial robot installations — and puts factory capacity at 20,000 arms, without saying when that level would be reached. He would not disclose customer counts, revenue or production figures. Japan's FANUC shipped its one-millionth industrial robot in 2023; Denmark's Universal Robots says it has sold more than 100,000 cobots (collaborative robots designed to work alongside people).

Beard dismisses the incumbents as "nothingburgers" with weak software. Analysts push back. "FANUC is very highly regarded, as is Universal Robots," said George Chowdhury of ABI Research. "To break into those markets is going to be really hard. They're going to have to beat them on cost and performance."

Standard Bots' midsize arm starts at $39,500, against over $50,000 for a comparably sized Universal Robots model. Chinese suppliers sell considerably cheaper. And the "made in America" claim remains partial: the company designs nearly every major component at its Long Island factory but sources only about 40% of parts domestically by value, because American alternatives can cost three to ten times more. The company also does not yet use many of its own robots on its production line, though Beard says it plans to as it scales.

Who is backing him?

By 2024, Standard Bots had three customers and was running out of money. More than 70 investors turned Beard down before Lachy Groom, an early Stripe employee who cofounded robotics lab Physical Intelligence, decided to invest within five minutes. "My impression of Evan was, 'Holy shit, this is one of the smartest people I've ever met in my life," Groom said. "He's an absolute maniac. I've never met anyone who works harder."

Beard's earlier career explains the confidence. After Duke, he built Girlfriend Keeper, a viral app that automatically texted his girlfriend (now his wife, with whom he has five children). He sold a startup to Salesforce after Y Combinator in 2010, another to Spirent by 2014, and co-founded the media company A Plus with Ashton Kutcher. "Evan's speed to act is very quick," Kutcher said. "He takes the medicine and moves on."

The founding years in robotics were harder. Beard and cofounders James Cordle and David Golden endured exploding motor controllers (the electronics that move a robot's joints) and took an eight-year loan for a CNC mill after their makerspace closed.

Can Washington actually deliver?

The Defense Department's Office of Strategic Capital, which finances new factories and production, is negotiating a potential multi-billion-dollar loan for Standard Bots, according to two people familiar with the matter. The department did not respond to requests for comment. Beard, who has also visited the White House frequently and met Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, wants low-cost loans, adoption incentives, federal purchase guarantees and restrictions on Chinese robots in sensitive facilities.

Analyst Michelle Sun sees a viable path only if government creates early demand and the company uses AI to out-manufacture rivals. "We can't brute force our way to manufacturing in the US," she said. "The way to unlock it is to figure out how to leapfrog other countries using AI."

The strategy has a circular quality: Beard needs Washington's help to compete with China, and his pitch to Washington rests on targets — 4,000 robots by 2027, eventual US-made supply chains — that he has yet to hit. Tesla and Agility Robotics are also building robots domestically, and neither has proved profitable humanoid production at scale. The loan negotiations may settle whether Standard Bots becomes a national champion or another well-connected challenger.

"Robotics is going to strike at some of the country's biggest problems," Beard said. Perhaps. But no contract with the Pentagon exists yet, and the burden of proof sits in Glen Cove.