Heejin Yu
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) is exploring the home robotics market as it looks for the “next big thing,” Bloomberg reported.
Shares rose fractionally in late trading on Wednesday.
Engineers at the Cupertino, Calif.-based company have looked into a robot that can follow people around their home, the news outlet reported, citing people familiar with the matter. It has also worked on a home device that sits on tables and uses robotics to move around, the people said.
The efforts are still in the beginning stages and Apple may never release the products, the report said. Apple scrapped work on its electric vehicle project in February after spending a reported $10B on the project over several years.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.
Tech companies have tried to crack the robotics market in recent memory with mixed success. Amazon (AMZN) launched its Astro robot in 2021, with the $1,600 invite-only robot aimed at helping take care of elders, home security and a virtual assistant.
However, Amazon made no mention of Astro at its 2023 annual device event.
Tesla (TSLA) has worked on a humanoid-robot known as Optimus robot, which Chief Executive Elon Musk said recently could wind up being the company’s biggest business over time.
Figure AI, a startup that raised $675M in funding from Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos, Nvidia (NVDA) and others, is working on its own humanoid robot. Figure AI’s robot, known as Figure 01, is an artificial intelligence-powered robot that acts like a human and can be used to perform tasks deemed dangerous or unsuitable for humans.