Amazon Pursues a New Home Robot After Astro Stalled

WHO:

CNBC - Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and then-CEO, directed the company’s device executives to develop a home robot.

CNBC - Amazon’s new Personal Robotics Group includes staffers who previously worked in Lab126, the company’s hardware research and development unit.

CNBC - Amazon acquired Fauna Robotics, a New York-based robotics company, and brought an MIT roboticist onto its home-robot team.

CNBC - Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the Fauna acquisition reflected Amazon’s commitment to tackling challenges in personal robotics.

CNBC - Emily Lugo Velez, 52, an AI advisory business owner in North Carolina, has used Astro at home since 2023.

CNBC - Ken Washington, Amazon’s vice president of consumer robotics until 2023, said he advocated for a bipedal robot. He recalled Bezos being impressed by Astro’s mapping and navigation but disappointed by its limited functionality.

CNBC - Jeff Burnstein, president of the Association for Advancing Automation, said homes are particularly difficult environments for robots.

WHAT:

CNBC - Amazon is developing a “new-to-world robot product,” according to CNBC’s review of job listings. One listing described robots operating “alongside family members” in “dynamic home environments.”

CNBC - Astro cost $1,450, was an Alexa-equipped tablet on wheels, and could navigate homes, recognize faces, and serve as a roving security monitor. It reached only a few thousand customers and remained invite-only.

CNBC - Amazon launched a business version of Astro in 2023 and discontinued it less than a year later.

CNBC - Fauna’s Sprout is a 3.5-foot-tall humanoid robot with expressive yellow eyebrows, designed to be “friendly and capable.”

CNBC - Amazon job listings sought a field-support engineer for customer support and on-site repairs, and a user-experience designer to “define what it feels like to live with a Fauna robot.”

CNBC - Lugo Velez said Astro helps her check on pets and appliances but is mostly a “party trick” and “trip hazard.” She said, “I feel like we're just stuck with it.”

CNBC - Amazon has more than one million warehouse robots that pick, sort, and transport items to workers.

WHERE:

CNBC - Fauna Robotics is based in New York; Lugo Velez uses Astro in her North Carolina home.

CNBC - Amazon’s Lab126 developed products including Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, and Fire Tablet, as well as the Fire Phone.

WHY:

CNBC - Amazon says it aims to create personal robots that help people in everyday life; Glasser said a substantial gap remains between controlled-lab capabilities and real-world settings such as homes and lobbies.

CNBC - Barclays forecast the humanoid-robot market, valued at $2 billion to $3 billion, could reach about $40 billion by 2035, or $200 billion in its “most optimistic scenarios.”

HOW:

CNBC - Amazon’s job listing said the robot would autonomously operate alongside family members. A June listing described a goal of making robots “not just functional, but delightful.”

CNBC - Washington said Amazon executives had discussed adding an arm to Astro so it could pick up and inspect items without breaking them.

CNBC - Burnstein cited children, pets, grandparents, stairways, and differences between homes as obstacles for robots, especially walking robots.

(UPDATED November 9, 2026 04:01 UTC)

Amazon is developing a home robot, building a team and acquiring robotics company Fauna. Its previous Astro robot had limited functions and reached only a few thousand customers. The company aims to make robots useful at home, a challenging environment for machines.