The verified answer
As of Sep 2026, DEPLOY verifies Hanson Robotics: 1 model, 4 deployments across 4 regions. 4 sources back the record.
CategoryHumanoids
Overview
Hanson Robotics is a Hong Kong-based Humanoid robotics company developing expressive social robots including Sophia, the world-famous humanoid robot known for advanced facial expressions and conversational AI.
Verified record
- Verified deployments
- 4 deployments on file
- Active incidents
- None on file
Key facts
Robot
Products
CEO
Product
Notable
Hero image candidate
Data & sources
Patent documents
3
Web sources
1
4 sources backing this record.View all →
Models (1)
View all models →Partnerships
Every company Hanson Robotics has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most-frequent partners
- 1Alphabet/Google1× joint
Most recent
- with Alphabet/Googleoperating
Hanson Robotics on the deployment map
View the global map4 verified deployments across 4 regions, newest verified Apr 2024. Explore where Hanson Robotics's robots are operating, by place and type.
View the full Hanson Robotics deployment record →
Relationships
Current leadership (1)
- David Hanson Founder & CEO, Founder, CEOsecondary-verified
Founders (2)
- David Hansonsolefounded 2013-01-01
- David Hansonsole
Safety record
No incidents on record for Hanson Robotics.
Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.
Full safety record: incidents, sourcing, and exposure data →
Operator customers (1)
- Hanson Robotics4 deployments
Recent coverage
Hanson Robotics in third-party press
Peers
101 peers across 1 segment. Every Hanson Robotics competitor derived from shared form-factor and application-domain edges.
humanoid(101)
68 companies in this segment · competitive (HHI 574.5255335898561) · leader Figure AI at 1207%
- Unitree Roboticsdirect competitor(reported)weak
- 1X Technologiesdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- 1X Technologiesdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AI2 Roboticsdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- AIST Humanoid Research Groupdirect competitor(inferred)moderate
- Acuminodirect competitor(inferred)moderate
Financial state
- Reporting basis
- private_reported
- Lifecycle stage
- early
- Counterparty risk class
- moderate
Each numeric field carries its own basis marker. Aggregators report a number; this surface preserves the source class so verification depth travels with the value.
Partnerships
1 total · 1 operating
Every company Hanson Robotics has built with, alongside the ones only announced in a press release.
Most recent
- with Alphabet/Googleoperating
Most-frequent partners
- 1Alphabet/Google1× joint
All 1 partnerships
open in the atlas →- Alphabet Google x Hanson Robotics (Sophia Speech Recognition AI)withAlphabet/Googletechnology2018-01-01operating
Patent estate (3)
- US7113848B2usptograntedgranted 2006-10-03assignee
- US20110041641A1usptopendingassignee
- US10864453B2usptograntedgranted 2020-12-22assignee
Timeline
Every recorded move in Hanson Robotics’s history, most recent first: funding rounds, partnerships, acquisitions, supply-chain starts, key hires, and press.
PartnershipAlphabet Google x Hanson Robotics (Sophia Speech Recognition AI)
2018-01-01Hanson Robotics embedded Alphabet/Google's speech recognition technology into Sophia the robot, designed to get smarter over time. Combined with Hanson's Frubber skin and expressive AI platform, Sophia became the world's most advanced social humanoid robot.
Key hireDavid Hanson joins as Founder, CEO
2013-01-01David Hanson appointed Founder, CEO (current)
Recent activity
Every change to this record is dated, sourced, and independently verified where marked.
- Record createdJun 8, 2026
Added to the verified registry
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedApr 16, 2024
Sophia at Dubai, UAE
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2020
Sophia at Atlanta, Georgia, USA
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2018
Sophia at Washington, DC, USA
- Deployment verifiedVerifiedJan 1, 2018
Sophia at Cambridge, United Kingdom
Sources (1)
Common questions
What is Hanson Robotics?
What does Hanson Robotics make?
Who competes with Hanson Robotics?
Who is the CEO of Hanson Robotics?
Where is Hanson Robotics headquartered?
Where does Hanson Robotics operate robots?
How many robots has Hanson Robotics deployed?
Is Hanson Robotics a top robotics company?
When was Hanson Robotics founded?
Is Hanson Robotics safe?
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-08-21
Verification posture
Verified
Low confidence
Review state
Stable
Last reviewed 2026-08-21
Sources by quality tier
- 1
- unclassified
- Unclassified source
The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.
Methodology surface for Hanson Robotics.Peer companies
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
- Dobot6 models
- AgiBot5 models
- AheadForm5 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
In the press
Recent coverage mentioning Hanson Robotics from third-party publications. Automatically surfaced; not part of the verified registry record.
Machine-readable surfaces
- Markdown mirror: /companies/hanson-robotics.md
- RSS feed: /companies/hanson-robotics/feed.xml
- JSON-LD: embedded in this page’s head
- REST API: /v1/companies/435c90f6-8825-43bf-819a-1700e1dad06b
- Revision history: /companies/hanson-robotics/history
- Data documentation: /data
- Query this programmatically: Deploy MCP
Peer companies
- Unitree Robotics10 models
- DLR Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics6 models
- Dobot6 models
- AgiBot5 models
- AheadForm5 models
- Boston Dynamics5 models
Video
#sophiarobot #hansonrobotics
A quick teaser of the newest and most realistic humanoid robot yet from David Hanson and the team at Hanson Robotics. Meet Jules at Wired NextFest.
Meet Sophia the Robot and follow her journey as she travels and learns about the world. Sophia is Hanson Robotics’ most advanced human-like robot, created by c
Meet Little Sophia, Hanson Robotics newest consumer robot. Little Sophia is a tutorial companion that teaches STEM, coding, and Artificial intelligence (AI), wi
Hanson Robotics, creator of human-like robots and smart software, introduced “Han” at the Global Sources Mobile Electronics show held in Hong Kong from April 18
We bring robots to life. Hanson Robotics is an AI company devoted to research, robotics and the creation of the world’s most remarkable and lifelike humanoids
Doctor David Hanson introduces robots with extremely natural expressions that have human like responses that are intended to build relationships with robots to
What's inside a Hanson Robot? Awesome! #humanoid AI robot! #hansonrobotics #AI #airobot #chatgpt #gpt3 #airobot #airobot #sentient #mechatronics Speech re
Heat Index
Serious52/100
A composite of competitive footprint, funding, press velocity, active partnerships, and supply-chain edges. Different from the Intelligence score below (which is per-form-factor productization). Non-robotics companies cap at 25.
Reality vs attention
Hanson Robotics draws attention at the 71st percentile but verifies reality at the 67th percentile among humanoids. Hype Gap +4.1, 47th widest among humanoids.
6-month trend
Analysis
Clean safety record across 4 verified deployments. Limited public funding data for capital position assessment.
Signal flags
Dimension breakdown
Verified signal
Attention (reach, not merit)
DEPLOY Intelligence scores are computed from verified registry data: confirmed deployments, disclosed funding rounds, regulatory filings, active job listings, video viewership, and press coverage. Confidence ratings reflect data availability. Scores update nightly.
DEPLOY Indices — verified vs claimed
Last computed: Sep 8, 2026