OpenAI has confirmed that it is officially entering the hardware market to independently develop in-house humanoid robots.

Breaking a multi-year hiatus from hardware development, CEO Sam Altman announced on the Sources podcast that OpenAI will move beyond partnerships to build its own physical machines. 

"We will definitely do a humanoid," Altman stated, setting a public target for a prototype demonstration by 2027.

While OpenAI previously focused on providing the AI "brains" for external robotics companies like Figure AI, this announcement marks a complete structural pivot. The company has already begun aggressively hiring dozens of hardware and robotics engineers.

Rather than relying on off-the-shelf components, OpenAI is designing its own custom electromechanical actuators. These proprietary systems will integrate:

• High-torque electric motors

• Advanced sensory feedback loops

• Integrated thermal management systems

Internal documents indicate that OpenAI plans to use its own facilities as the initial testing ground. The first generation of humanoids will be deployed internally to assist with building facilities and managing data center logistics.

Altman emphasised that while building the physical chassis is a complex engineering hurdle, OpenAI’s primary advantage remains its AI models. The ultimate goal is to fuse their next-generation multimodal models with custom hardware, creating a machine capable of autonomous spatial navigation, real-world cognition, and complex task execution.

The first public look at OpenAI's independent hardware is expected to debut in mid-2027.