Foundation (Foundation Future Industries)
Builds the Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial logistics, with US DoD contracts
Startup · Pilot · Humanoid startup · San Francisco, California, United States · Founded 2024 · foundation.bot
Profile
Foundation, started by former Synapse CEO Sankaet Pathak, positions its Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial work. It has reported about $24M in US Department of Defense contracts. In 2026 it was reported to be seeking up to $500M at a valuation above $3B.
Notes Unverified Low-confidence record. Funding history is inconsistent across sources (one tracker reports a $187M Series A at $1.32B in Aug 2025; others ~$21M total). Omitted until a primary source is available.
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Leadership
- Sankaet Pathak, Co-founder & CEO
Appearances
Talks, panels and interviews by this company’s leaders, newest first. What a speaker said is their own claim, not our finding.
- USAiredTV interview
Fox News interview
“Humanoid robots could eventually help monitor southern border”
Sankaet Pathak, CEO
Summary (From a video summary)
Pathak said Foundation's Phantom robots could eventually detect people, move over uneven terrain and flag activity for federal border officers, as described in Fox News's video summary.
What Sankaet said (the speaker’s own claims, not our findings)
- Phantom robots could eventually help monitor the southern border by flagging activity for federal officers (Pathak, per Fox News caption).
Coverage and sources:Fox News (Aug 16)Video
As of . Items we could not verify are marked or left out.
Flagship robots
- Phantom Humanoid
Humanoid for military logistics, reconnaissance and inspection
Hiring signals
- Open roles
- 24all roles
- Top location
- San Francisco · 92%22 of 24 roles
- Top role area
- Actuators & mechanical8 roles · 36% of 22 engineering & ops
Where the roles are · share of 24 open roles (all roles)
- San Francisco, California, US92%22 roles
- CA4%1 roles
- Covington, Georgia, US4%1 roles
Locations are where the posting says the job is based, not where the robots are built. A posting that lists several sites is counted once, under the first.
Role mix · 22 engineering & ops roles
Show 4 more areas
Roles are sorted into a fixed list of areas by job title. Percentages are of engineering & ops roles. The other 2 open roles (finance, HR, legal, sales, facilities and similar) are in the total but not shown here.
Notable postings
- JobSenior role in Actuators & mechanical, one of the company's largest hiring areasPrincipal Compute ArchitectSan Francisco, California, US
- JobSenior role in Embedded & electrical, one of the company's largest hiring areasStaff Electrical Engineer (Actuators)San Francisco, California, US
- JobTypical role in Manufacturing engineering, one of the company's largest hiring areasR&D Autonomous Vehicle TechnicianSan Francisco, California, US
- JobTypical role in Perception & vision, one of the company's largest hiring areasElectrical Engineer, Tactile/Hand SensorSan Francisco, California, US
- JobTypical role in Navigation & locomotion, one of the company's largest hiring areasPlanning EngineerSan Francisco, California, US
As of . Scope: all roles. Counts are our reading of public job postings, not company statements.
Scope note All open Foundation (Foundation Future Industries) postings, read from its Rippling job board.
Trademarks
No US filings since 2025 (last checked ).
Source: USPTO Trademark Search, matched on the company’s legal names. Rechecked on the 1st and 15th of each month. A filing shows intent to use a name in the US, not a launched product.
Competitors
Companies with overlapping products. Direct = same customers and same job; Adjacent = overlapping technology or market, different focus.
Persona AI
Adjacent competitorBoth pitch humanoids for rugged industrial and defense-adjacent work: Persona AI is building rugged humanoids for shipyards and heavy industry, while Foundation builds the Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial work.
Genki Robotics
Adjacent competitorBoth pitch humanoids for public-safety and defense-type work: Genki Robotics builds humanoids for public-safety and urban-maintenance work, while Foundation builds the Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial work.
Minerva Humanoids
Adjacent competitorBoth pitch humanoids for dangerous work: Minerva Humanoids is building semi-autonomous humanoids for hazardous jobs such as bomb disposal, while Foundation builds the Phantom humanoid for defense and industrial work.
Recent news
- — Profile of Foundation's $24M Pentagon work and Phantom capabilities Biped.News
- — Foundation seeks up to $500M at >$3B valuation (reported) Newcomer Reported
Sources
- Pentagon gave a startup $24M for humanoid robot soldiers (Biped.News) (Jun 1, 2026)
- Foundation Future seeks $3 billion valuation (Newcomer) (May 1, 2026)
Confidence: low.