Persona AI is a Houston, Texas startup that builds humanoid robots for heavy industry: welding, grinding, inspection and fabrication in shipyards, steel shops and energy sites. It is not Persona, the identity-verification company, which is why its own site says it is a robotics company and not an identity verification company. Founded in 2024, Persona AI has a Gen 1 humanoid that welded in a live Houston shop in July 2026 under human teleoperation. Its main deal is with HD Hyundai, which targets prototype welding humanoids by the end of 2026 and shipyard field tests from 2027. You can’t buy one; companies contact Persona AI directly.
Who runs it
Persona AI was founded in 2024 in Houston by people from NASA and the offshore-robot company Nauticus Robotics, according to The Robot Report:
- **Nicolaus Radford, CEO:** founder and former CEO of Nauticus Robotics, and 15 years at NASA, where he was principal investigator at the Dexterous Robotics Lab.
- **Jerry Pratt, CTO:** former CTO of Figure AI.
- **Jide Akinyode, COO:** former vice president of engineering at Nauticus.
The company’s SEC Form D lists the same three people as executive officers and directors, with an address on Main Street in downtown Houston.
What the robot is built to do
Persona AI’s humanoid page describes a modular platform for skilled industrial work rather than warehouse picking. Its stated design targets are two work shifts per day, operation in hot and cold conditions, water and dust resistance for outdoor work, and compatibility with common industrial tools. The roles it lists are welder, fabricator, assembler, inspector and miner, and many are written as future capabilities (“will be compatible”, “will perform”). The company hasn’t published height, weight, payload or battery figures.
The target industries are shipbuilding (welding, painting, grinding, confined spaces), energy and utilities (inspection and maintenance), construction and manufacturing. Persona AI’s footer also lists steel fabrication, steel producers, ports, and automotive, space and defense.
What it has actually done so far
Persona AI’s own posts are unusually specific about how far along it is:
- **July 8, 2026, first weld in a live shop.** In its “First Spark” post, the company says its Gen 1 humanoid, off its support gantry and without tethers, squatted, ran a weld and stood back up at ARC Specialties, a Houston welding automation shop, among smoke, arc light and uneven floors. The company calls this a starting point, not finished performance.
- **A person was driving.** Its August 6, 2026 post on teleoperation says an operator using motion capture and XR supplied the intent, while the robot handled its own balance, footing and joint planning. Persona AI describes teleoperation as the way it collects expert data to automate tasks later. So the weld was a teleoperated demonstration, not autonomous welding.
- **A steel-shop pilot.** Persona AI says it will place a humanoid at SSE Steel Fabrication in Louisiana to learn welding inside an operating facility, as described in its post on the Biz New Orleans feature. No start date was given beyond “later this year”.
The HD Hyundai shipyard deal
On May 7, 2025, Persona AI signed a memorandum of understanding with HD Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, HD Hyundai Robotics and Vazil Company, announced in a joint release. The roles are split:
- Persona AI builds the humanoid hardware and the AI control and learning software.
- Vazil develops the welding tools and the test environment.
- HD KSOE provides live shipyard deployment and field data.
- HD Hyundai Robotics supplies welding-path training data and validation.
The stated timeline is prototype humanoids by the end of 2026, then field testing and commercial deployment starting in 2027. An MOU is an agreement to work together, not a purchase order, and no robot count or contract value has been published.
How much money it has raised
- **May 2025:** an oversubscribed $27 million pre-seed round co-led by Unity Growth and Tides Ventures, with Mirae Asset among the participants (The Robot Report, linked above).
- **August–September 2026:** a Form D filed with the SEC on September 14, 2026 reports $65.36 million sold toward a planned $141.96 million equity offering, from 46 investors, with the first sale on August 28, 2026. A Form D is a notice of an offering in progress, not a closed round, and it doesn’t name investors or a valuation.
Can a company lease or buy one?
Not off the shelf. Persona AI publishes no price, and the “Lease a Humanoid” link in its site footer leads to a general company page, not a lease form. The company has described a robots-as-a-service model, which means paying for the robot’s work over time rather than buying hardware. In practice:
- Contact Persona AI through its contact page.
- Expect a pilot discussion first. Current work is in prototypes and pilots, so a deployment date isn’t something you can count on yet.
How Persona AI differs from other humanoid makers
Most humanoid startups aim at warehouse totes and factory parts handling, such as Agility’s Digit or Apptronik’s Apollo. Persona AI goes after skilled trades in rough, changing environments, and it is open about relying on teleoperation while it gets there. Our humanoid robot companies hub compares the main makers by who sells, who pilots and who is still building.