A San Francisco robotics startup with ties to the Trump family has made history by deploying humanoid robots into an active war zone, sending two of its machines to Ukraine to assist in logistics operations near the front lines — marking what the company describes as the first known deployment of humanoid robots in a combat theater. Foundation Future Industries, founded in 2024, now holds $24 million in U.S. military research contracts and has set its sights on embedding its technology into American frontline military operations within the next 18 months, raising both enthusiasm and pointed political controversy in equal measure.
From Fintech to the Front Lines
Foundation Future Industries was founded by Sankaet Pathak, who was previously best known for leading Synapse, a fintech platform that declared bankruptcy in 2024. Shortly after, Pathak launched Foundation alongside Arjun Sethi, former CEO of Tribe Capital, and Mike LeBlanc, a co-founder of Cobalt Robotics. The company’s mission, according to Pathak, is built on a core conviction that humanoid robotics should be directed toward humanity’s most dangerous and demanding challenges — not household chores or service roles.
“I’m convinced the technology is reaching a level where it can replace jobs that are dangerous for humans to perform, and if you can do that, it’s the highest net good you can create out of all applications of robotics,” Pathak told CNBC.
The startup operates in an increasingly crowded humanoid robotics field, but its explicit embrace of military and industrial applications — rather than domestic or commercial ones — has set it apart from competitors racing to build robots that fold laundry or staff cafes.
Ukraine: The World’s Most Advanced Robotics Test Bed
Earlier this year, Foundation sent two of its Phantom MK-1 humanoid units to Ukraine for a pilot demonstration backed by the U.S. government and conducted with Ukrainian officials. The tests focused on logistics operations in hazardous areas, with CEO Sankaet Pathak stating that MK-1 testing proved the robots can perform supply pickups that currently expose soldiers to danger. Ukraine was a natural debut for the technology. The conflict, now in its fifth year, has already emerged as one of the most significant test beds for robotics and artificial intelligence in modern warfare, with ground robots delivering supplies to the front and autonomous drones conducting precision strikes and reconnaissance.
The current MK-1 units, however, are far from battlefield-ready super soldiers. The robots carry approximately 44 pounds, and according to Pathak, they lack both waterproofing and sufficient battery life to be deployed at scale. Foundation plans to address those limitations this year by sending an upgraded Phantom 2 to Ukraine — a version Pathak says will come with “superhuman abilities” and double the payload capacity of its predecessor. The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine declined to comment on the deployment.
Eric Trump and the Washington Connection
The company’s alignment with Washington deepened significantly when Eric Trump, the second son of President Donald Trump, joined Foundation as its chief strategy adviser. A Foundation spokesperson confirmed that Eric Trump had been an investor in the firm before transitioning to an advisory role, with both parties sharing a stated vision of returning manufacturing to the United States.
Eric Trump made that posture explicit during a Fox Business appearance alongside Pathak in April, framing the company’s work in the context of great-power competition. “We are America first. We have to win this race,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo. “We better be winning this race in the United States of America. We’re the greatest economy in the world.”
Pathak echoed that framing directly, telling CNBC that the goal is to deliver “the best robots we can build” to the U.S. military — “better than anything China has.”
$24 Million in Pentagon Contracts — and Political Backlash
Foundation has already secured $24 million in U.S. government research contracts spanning feasibility testing in inspection, logistics, and weapons handling across the Army, Navy, and Air Force. The company has also begun testing its robots with the Marine Corps, according to reporting from Fox Business. Pathak said that conversations with government officials have already shifted from research discussions to questions of how to scale the use of the robots operationally.
The contracts drew immediate scrutiny from Capitol Hill. Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren responded to news of the deal by writing on X that the firm’s government contracts represented “corruption in plain sight,” pointing directly to Eric Trump’s advisory role and his father’s administration as the awarding authority. Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar went further, calling the Trumps “the most corrupt first family of all time.” The Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment on those characterizations.
A Pentagon Budget That Signals the Future
Foundation’s contracts arrive at a moment when the Pentagon is making its most dramatic pivot toward autonomous warfare in its history. The Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request for fiscal year 2027 includes $54.6 billion for the Defense Autonomous Warfare Group — the biggest single year-over-year increase of any defense program or office in the request, with most of the dollars directed toward research and development. The DAWG was created to unify the Defense Department’s efforts to quickly mass-produce unmanned systems for U.S. troops. That budget context gives companies like Foundation significant runway — and significant competition.
The Humanoid Advantage — and Its Limits
Proponents of humanoid technology in military settings argue that human-shaped robots hold a structural advantage over other forms of autonomous systems. Kateryna Bondar, a senior fellow with the Wadhwani AI Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told CNBC that the physical design of modern combat environments could favor humanoids in specific scenarios. “Modern urban combat spaces — where there are stairwells, ladders, basements and narrow corridors — were created for human movement, which could give humanoid systems an advantage over tracked or quadruped robots in certain scenarios,” Bondar said.
Not all experts are convinced the humanoid form factor is the right answer for the battlefield. Melanie Sisson, a senior fellow with the Brookings Foreign Policy program, argued that Ukraine’s conflict has pointed in the opposite direction. “Making robots look like humans is a complex and expensive engineering challenge, and what Ukraine has taught us is the opposite — that we need the ability to adapt rapidly and manufacture quickly and cheaply,” Sisson said.
Autonomy, Ethics, and the Decision to Kill
Among the most consequential questions Foundation’s work raises is how much autonomous decision-making a combat robot should be permitted to exercise without human confirmation. Pathak told CNBC that while most weaponized uses of the Phantom robots will retain a human in the decision loop, the robots will need to make fully autonomous decisions in certain time-critical scenarios — a position that places the company squarely in the center of one of the most contested debates in military ethics.
Those concerns extend beyond any single company. The U.S. military has already demonstrated a willingness to integrate AI into lethal decision-making, with AI models reportedly used to inform strikes in the ongoing conflict with Iran. The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, a coalition of more than 250 NGOs, has been advocating for a new international legal instrument ensuring human control in the use of force since 2013, with approximately 90 states calling for such an instrument. The United States has been among the nations that have blocked its adoption.
China, Competition, and the Bigger Picture
Foundation has deliberately framed its work within the U.S.-China technological rivalry, positioning its robots as a direct answer to advances being made by Chinese companies. China has publicly funded and supported humanoid robotics initiatives, though those efforts have been primarily directed at industrial and economic applications. Chinese military researchers have released reports exploring the potential of humanoid robots in combat, though the scope of any live testing remains unclear. China’s military has previously showcased AI-powered robotic dogs and motion-controlled humanoid robot soldiers in public demonstrations.
Toby Walsh, chief scientist at the University of New South Wales’s AI Institute, offered a measured view of where the technology is ultimately headed. “I expect tracked, flying and underwater robots to replace human forces,” Walsh said — but cautioned that it may be a “science fiction trope to expect humanoid terminator-style robots” on the battlefield. What experts across the spectrum appear to agree on is the broader trajectory: the age of AI-driven autonomous robots in warfare is no longer hypothetical. For Foundation Future Industries and its politically connected backers, the race to shape that future — and profit from it — is already underway.
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