Phoenix
Phoenix is Sanctuary AI's general-purpose humanoid, first shown as Gen 6 in May 2023 and iterated to Gen 7 in April 2024 and Gen 8 in 2025. Its distinguishing feature is fast, miniaturised hydraulic hands with tactile sensing. Sanctuary has a manufacturing and deployment partnership with Magna.
We have not sat down with this one. The score below is computed from the data we hold, and the facts on this page are sourced. It is not on sale, so there is nothing to recommend.
How the score is built
Capability is what the machine physically does. Value compares it with others at a similar price, not with the whole market. Buyability asks whether you can really order one. Ecosystem is the software and community around it. Proof is what it has done in the field, which is where most humanoids score badly and should.
What people buy instead.
- Status
- In pilots
- Category
- general purpose
- First revealed
- 16 May 2023
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- 170 cm
- Weight
- 70 kg
- Payload
- 25 kg
- Degrees of freedom
- n/a
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- electric body with miniature hydraulic hands
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- yes
Where it stands
Successive generations (Gen 6 in 2023, Gen 7 in 2024, Gen 8 in 2025) used in pilots with Magna and others; not for sale.
What stands out
- Miniature hydraulic hands with tactile sensors
- Gen 7 unveiled April 2024
- Magna partnership for manufacturing and pilots
Autonomy, observed
Pilots with Magna (automotive parts) and a retail pilot with Mark's in Canada (2023) reported by the company.
Sanctuary's approach trains autonomy from teleoperated task data; pilots have used teleoperation.
Hands, sensors, brain
- Hands: five-finger, hydraulic hands with about 20 DoF and tactile sensing
- AI stack: Carbon AI control system, teleoperation-first data collection
Price and volume
no public price
Index position
In the Humanoid Index, which ranks on shipped reality rather than value for money, Phoenix sits at #86 of 107 with 18 points: deployment 10/50, autonomy 8/30, availability 0/20. See that method.
Where Phoenix works.
| Customer | Site | Sector | Task | Since | Status | Units | Autonomy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magna International | Magna manufacturing facility (location not disclosed), Canada | automotive | Automotive parts handling in a pilot | Apr 2024 | unclear | n/d | teleoperated |
| Canadian Tire Corporation (Mark's) | Mark's store, Langley, British Columbia, Canada | retail | Front and back of store tasks including packing, cleaning, tagging, labelling and folding | Mar 2023 | ended | 1 | teleoperated |
Milestones.
Magna to deploy Sanctuary AI's Phoenix in a car parts plant
Sanctuary AI announces an agreement with Magna International, which had invested in the company, to deploy Phoenix robots at a Magna manufacturing facility. Sanctuary later scales back and shifts toward supplying hands and teleoperation technology.
Sanctuary AI unveils Phoenix
Canadian company Sanctuary AI reveals Phoenix, its sixth generation general purpose robot with 20 degree of freedom hands, controlled by the Carbon AI system and largely teleoperated for training. Time magazine names it an invention of the year.
How a humanoid robot works: actuators, compute, sensors and the model
Of 182 humanoids on record, 178 say what moves the joints and 43 say what computer is inside. The further a layer sits from the metal, the less the maker tells you about it.
Startups, automakers, universities: who builds humanoids
108 makers, nine kinds. Startups hold 37 of the 44 humanoids you can order. Automakers, universities, big tech, conglomerates and NASA hold 45 robots between them and sell none of them.
Who is paying for humanoids: 69 funding rounds
Our funding record holds 69 entries. Take out the government funds, the acquisitions and the IPOs and $6.33 billion of disclosed private money remains. 37 percent of it went to companies with no robot on record.
What humanoid robots can actually do in 2026
Of 182 humanoid robots on record, 117 have a human in the loop, 33 have ever worked at a customer site and none has a verified fleet count. Here is what that leaves.
Where humanoids actually work: 52 deployments, counted
We track 52 humanoid deployments at named sites. Eighteen are in car plants, exactly half are live, and six say how many robots turned up. Those six add up to 41 machines.
Why hands are the hardest part of a humanoid
Of 182 humanoids on record, 96 describe their hands and 13 publish a degrees-of-freedom figure for them. The word dexterous appears 21 times and comes with a number once.
Sources
- 01Sanctuary AISanctuary AI
- 02Sanctuary AIWikipedia
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