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Physical AI / Company profile

Sanctuary AI

What Sanctuary AI does

Sanctuary AI is a Canadian robotics and “Physical AI” company focused on automating complex industrial work that requires human-like dexterity, especially tasks involving contact, manipulation, and dynamic environments. The company positions its approach as “production-ready Physical AI,” delivered by deploying proprietary physical-robotics intelligence and policies across industrial robotic hardware (starting with today’s commercially available robotic platforms) while also building toward future industrial humanoids. Sanctuary AI’s core product direction combines general-purpose humanoid robot embodiments (notably its Phoenix series) with a proprietary AI control system (“Carbon”) and a suite of dexterous, tactile-sensing hardware elements such as its hydraulic hands. The company’s offerings emphasize end-to-end infrastructure for data collection and policy development, enabling “real policies” with “real performance” on real equipment rather than only lab demonstrations. Sanctuary AI sells and implements automation solutions for industrial leaders seeking to relieve labor shortages and improve throughput on tasks traditional automation struggles to handle reliably, including high-precision contact-rich work at production cycle times.

News

Company record

Jun 17, 2026 · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI Expands Physical AI Strategy to Industrial Robotics, Demonstrating Production-Ready AI Performance

Sanctuary AI announced production-task performance validated against a global Tier 1 automotive supplier’s live benchmarks, stating a 99.5%+ task success rate at a 2.54-second cycle time for a complex wire plugging task on a live conveyor. The company described shifting from waiting for humanoid mass commercialization to deploying Physical AI on existing commercial industrial robotic platforms.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsDaniel Friedmann Appointed CEO of Sanctuary AI

Sanctuary AI announced that its Board appointed Daniel Friedmann as Chief Executive Officer, with full support of the Board and leadership team, and thanked outgoing interim leadership for contributions.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsZeon Invests in Sanctuary AI and Partners to Advance Specialized Materials for Dexterous Robotics

Zeon announced an investment and partnership with Sanctuary AI, tying the collaboration to materials expertise and testing for transitioning dexterous robotic deployments to the factory floor.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI Releases New Generation of AI Robots for High Quality Data Capture

Sanctuary AI announced Phoenix Generation 8, described as optimized for high-quality data capture with improvements to telemetry systems, cameras/field of view, person-robot interaction, and manufacturing/commissioning speed. The company also described the role of higher-fidelity training data in embodied learning for physical world grounding.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI Equips General Purpose Robots with New Touch Sensors for Performing Highly Dexterous Tasks

Sanctuary AI announced integration of new tactile sensor technology into Phoenix general-purpose robots, describing improved teleoperation pilots for complex touch-driven tasks and the generation of richer behavioral data for embodied models.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI New Tactile Sensors Enable Richer Sense of Touch

Sanctuary AI unveiled a new generation of tactile sensor technology, describing compliant, sensitive, and scalable tactile sensors with integrated haptics and positioning them as a major step toward human-level dexterity and higher-performing embodied AI models.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI Leverages NVIDIA Isaac Lab to Accelerate Dexterous Learning

Sanctuary AI described using NVIDIA Isaac Lab to accelerate sim-to-real transfer for learned dexterous manipulation policies on its high-degree-of-freedom hydraulic robotic hand, reiterating the role of finger abduction and in-hand manipulation enabled by the hand’s actuation design.

Date not disclosed · Official · Sanctuary AI NewsSanctuary AI Leads the Industry in Controlling Advanced Hydraulic Hands Using Reinforcement Learning

Sanctuary AI announced demonstrations of reinforcement-learning-trained dexterous manipulation for its proprietary hydraulic hands, including a stated in-hand reorientation policy trained in simulation and executed in the real world against gravity with an added load.

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Funding

Latest disclosed valuationNot disclosed
Tracked capital$119.6M8 sourced rounds
DateRoundRaisedValuationLead / investorsEvidence
May 26, 2026Strategic investment (Zeon Ventures / Zeon)
Not attributed
+1 investor
Jan 01, 2024Strategic financing from BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund and InBC (amount not disclosed on page)
Nov 30, 2022Strategic Innovation Fund (government grant/investment)$30M
Jan 14, 2022Regulation D exempt equity offering (Form D)$1.1M
Not attributed
UndatedStrategic financing (BDC Capital and InBC)
UndatedStrategic Innovation Fund (SIF) contribution (Government of Canada)$30M
UndatedStrategic investment/partnership (Zeon Ventures)
Not attributed
+1 investor

What it builds

Phoenix™ general-purpose humanoid robots

Phoenix is Sanctuary AI’s general-purpose humanoid robot platform, intended to support a broad set of work tasks and to improve data capture and embodied learning via successive generations (including Phoenix Generation 8).

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Carbon™ physical AI control system

Carbon is Sanctuary AI’s proprietary cognitive architecture and AI control system described as integrating reasoning and language-to-action capabilities for humanoid general-purpose robots, including training via photo-realistic and physics-realistic simulations and deployment using human-in-the-loop supervision/teleoperation and fleet management.

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Physical AI-Enabled Automation (industrial deployment offering)

Sanctuary AI provides end-to-end infrastructure for data collection, policy development, and scaling Physical AI across workflows, aimed at production-ready performance for complex industrial manipulation tasks via industrial arms, custom end effectors, and other supported robotic hardware.

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Dexterous Hydraulic Hands (hardware)

Sanctuary AI designs robotic dexterity hardware using hydraulic actuation and integrated tactile sensing, positioning it for industrial reliability and high-strength, compact, human-scale manipulation with advanced degrees of freedom.

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Key metrics

Milestones & partnerships

Date not disclosed
Production-task benchmarked performance on a global Tier 1 automotive supplier

Sanctuary AI reported a validated 99.5%+ task success rate and 2.54-second cycle time for a complex wire plugging production task, describing it as a proof-of-concept supported by the supplier’s live production benchmarks.

A global Tier 1 automotive supplier
Date not disclosed
Phoenix Generation 8 for higher-fidelity data capture

Sanctuary AI released Phoenix Generation 8, describing improvements to telemetry and sensing/cameras and positioning the update as enabling higher-quality training data for embodied AI learning.

Date not disclosed
New tactile sensor generation and integrated haptics

Sanctuary AI unveiled new tactile sensor technology aimed at improving dexterous manipulation and described integrated haptics for richer data and higher-performing embodied AI models.

Date not disclosed
Touch sensors integrated into Phoenix for touch-driven tasks

Sanctuary AI announced that it integrated new tactile sensors into Phoenix general-purpose robots and described outcomes for teleoperation pilots and task performance using touch-driven manipulation.

Date not disclosed
Sim-to-real acceleration for dexterous learning via NVIDIA Isaac Lab

Sanctuary AI described using NVIDIA Isaac Lab to accelerate dexterous policy learning and sim-to-real transfer for its hydraulic hand.

Date not disclosed
Reinforcement learning demonstrations on advanced hydraulic hands

Sanctuary AI shared reinforcement-learning-based demonstrations for in-hand manipulation, including real-world execution of an in-hand reorientation policy trained in simulation with an added load.

Date not disclosed
Strategic financing from BDC Capital and InBC

Sanctuary AI announced strategic financing from BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund and InBC, describing a total investment figure over US$140 million to date and naming additional existing investors.

BDC Capital’s Thrive Venture Fund · InBC Investment Corp.
Date not disclosed
Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF) contribution from the Government of Canada

Sanctuary AI announced receiving a $30 million Strategic Innovation Fund contribution from the Government of Canada.

Government of Canada (Strategic Innovation Fund)