AI-generated footage of Chinese humanoid robots preparing for war is going viral across social media, stoking fears that the kind of future the movies warned about is imminent.
Those who fell for the synthetic videos, and those who didn’t, generally agree: Though the footage is fake, the trajectory feels real. While Unitree Robotics, who makes the robots depicted in the deepfakes, insists it does not support lethal use cases, plenty of other companies around the world are all for it.
Foundation’s Skynet-Powered Robots
The San Francisco startup Foundation Future Industries claims it secured a contract to supply the Ukrainian military with its industrial humanoids.
The robots are powered by the startup’s foundational AI model. unironically named Skynet after the problematic artificial intelligence from the Terminator series. In the movies, Skynet is an autonomous defense system created to automate military operations and nuclear strike decisions. It becomes self-aware and fearing human attempts to shut it down, launches a global nuclear strike known as Judgment Day that wipes out much of humanity.
More than 40 years after Arnold first he’ll be back, the Terminator franchise is more relevant than ever, and Skynet has become a cultural shortorthand for fears surrounding artificial intelligence.
Foundation naming its system Skynet is provocative, but it’s also guaranteed to grab attention as the startup reportedly seeks a $1 billion valuation. Launched in 2024, the robotics firm is led by Sankaet Pathak, who founded the startup shortly after his previous venture, the fintech company Synapse, went bankrupt. Pathak launched Foundation with about $11 million in seed funding, part of which went toward acquiring Florida-based Boardwalk Robotics.
Foundation emerged from stealth in early 2025, immediately differentiating itself from fellow humanoid robot makers like Boston Dynamics, Agility Robotics, and Unitree with its eagerness to deploy its machines onto the battlefield. The startup unveiled its flagship humanoid, the Phantom MK1, at a San Francisco nightclub as the newly inaugurated Trump administration push to fast-track autonomous tech into defense.
Standing 180 cm (5 feet 11 inches) and weighing 80 kg (176 lbs), the Phantom humanoid boasts a reported 19 degrees of upper body freedom. At its core is Foundation’s proprietary cycloid actuators that the startup says deliver high torque, precision, and efficiency in a compact electric design. According to Foundation, the robot can carry payloads up to 20 kg (44 lbs), suiting it for demanding industrial use cases.
Foundation says its version of Skynet acts like one unified robot brain, combining perception, world modeling, task planning, and full body control. A key part of the system uses mathematical models called Deep Variational Bayes Filters (DVBF) to simplify sensory data, update predictions in real time, and turn them into movements or actions.
Foundation claims its deal with the Ukrainian military is to pilot the robots for logistics, maintenance, and reconnaissance roles. Beyond on-air statements, however, there has been no publicly documented contract delivery confirmation or official Ukrainian procurement record verifying deployment.
Foundation has inherited military contracts through its acquisition of Boardwalk, including a US Air Force Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) award valued at around $1.8 million. Media outlets like the San Francisco Standard and Newsweek have also reported company claims of roughly $10 million in defense contracts.
Foundation aims to manufacture up to 10,000 of its Phantom robots by the end of 2026. Hitting that target would likely make the company the largest US humanoid manufacturer by volume.
Scout AI’s Agentic Battlefield System
It would leapfrog western competitors like Tesla and Silicon Valley-based Figure AI whose founder Brett Adcock has said the $39 billion startup has passed on defense industry opportunities.
However, the founder’s brother, Colby, is going all in on military use cases. His Sunnyvale-based startup, Scout AI, is developing a foundation model and advanced autonomous systems for defense robotics. Launched in 2024, Scout just shared this demo of its Fury Orchestrator system, which the startup says brings agentic artificial intelligence onto the battlefield.
According to Scout, each step is dynamically assigned and adjusted in real time. Fury is powered by large-scale vision language action (VLA) models adapted for secure military environments. Scout emerged from stealth in 2025 with about $15 million in seed funding, having already secured multiple Pentagon contracts.
Japan’s Airborne Assault Robodogs
In the short term, four-legged robots are more likely to be seen on the battlefield than their bipedal counterparts.
Recent footage from Japan’s ground self-defense force shows quadrupeds during an airborne assault drill. The robots move ahead of paratroopers as first units to cover them during the simulated airborne insertion. The robots were developed by the US company Ghost Robotics.
Turkey’s First Armed Quadruped
In Turkey, Ankara-based Asisguard, which is best known for its armed drones, just introduced its military quadruped called SARBOT. It comes equipped with a Turkish-made 9mm submachine gun from SARSILMAZ.
According to the company, Turkey’s first armed unmanned four-legged robot stays stable on slopes up to 20 degrees. Its top speed is reported as 2.5 km/h (1.5 mph) for careful movement in confined or hazardous areas. It uses LiDAR to detect and identify objects up to 50 meters (164 feet).
Asisguard says the system achieves up to 99 percent accuracy within 25 meters or about the length of a basketball court.
China’s RoboWolves
Meanwhile in China, Hangzhou-based WuBa Intelligent Tech is accelerating the production of its RoboWolf quadrupeds showcased during the People’s Liberation Army’s 2025 Victory Day parade after recently securing around $69 million in funding. WuBa is backed by NORINCO Group, a state-owned defense conglomerate.
Launched in 2022 with around $42 million in registered capital, the robotics firm has maintained a relatively low profile. Even as its robotic dogs have become synonymous with the Chinese military’s next-generation arsenal. Modified quadrupeds from another Hangzhou company have also appeared in footage from military exercises by China’s army, the US Marines, and in Ukraine.
However, Unitree emphasizes that the modifications are not authorized and that it does not support lethal use cases. Unitree is distancing itself from weaponized machines as it executes on an aggressive growth strategy. If successful, its 2026 output will be more than 250 percent higher than the prior year.