A Humanoid Company Backed by Eric Trump Is Preparing Its Robots for War

Most humanoid robot companies talk about folding laundry or working warehouse shifts. Foundation Future Industries, led by CEO Sankaet Pathak, is aiming somewhere else entirely: the battlefield. Pathak tells WIRED his company is exploring what he calls "kinetic things" — his way of saying weapons systems — and expects to unveil something within a couple of months. Beyond combat, Foundation pitches its humanoid, Phantom MK1, for logistics, reconnaissance and inspection work, and says it has already tested the robot with Ukrainian forces.

The military's interest in humanoids isn't new. DARPA ran humanoid competitions between 2012 and 2015, and the Army now funds a program called xTechHumanoids aimed at militarized capabilities. Legged robots, the thinking goes, can cross terrain that wheeled drones can't, potentially taking over tasks soldiers currently do themselves. Ukraine has become something of a proving ground for these systems, and Foundation is leaning into that reality rather than avoiding it.

What sets Foundation apart is its high-profile backing. Eric Trump, the president's son, is both an investor and the company's chief strategy adviser, and Pathak describes him as someone who tinkers with milling at home. During a Fox Business appearance on April 23, Trump praised the robots for fist-bumping and following commands, calling their potential uses — industrial, military, hospitality — unlimited. The segment also touted a $24 million Pentagon contract, though WIRED found the picture murkier: Foundation shared details of two contracts inherited through its acquisition of Boardwalk Robotics and three tied to the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, without evidence of new government money secured independently.

Some in the field see real logic here. One roboticist familiar with Foundation, speaking anonymously, points to the deadly first moments of urban combat — clearing doorways in places like Fallujah — as exactly where a machine might spare human lives, and says the idea feels close enough to feasible that fielding units already seems overdue. But others are far more skeptical. Robert Griffin of IHMC, who advised the company, says untangling what humanoids can currently do from what they might eventually do remains genuinely hard, with unresolved problems across perception, navigation and manipulation. Rodney Brooks, the MIT roboticist, is blunter still, estimating more than a decade before humanoids reliably handle rubble, blocked doors and unfamiliar terrain — and another decade-plus gap between a lab demo and real deployment.

Pathak waves off the darker comparisons, insisting doomsday scenarios around humanoids are overblown, and argues that robotics could ultimately make warfare more precise and reduce collateral damage, even if it can't end conflict outright. For now, the company's next model, Phantom MK2, is chiefly notable for a more modest upgrade: it'll be the first version that's waterproof and dustproof.