Amazon.com, Inc.

Amazon.com, founded in Seattle in 1994 and listed on Nasdaq as AMZN, is not a robotics company in the classic sense. Yet robotics has been part of its history for years: in 2012 the company acquired Kiva Systems, a supplier of warehouse robots, from which the Amazon Robotics division grew. It was the warehouse floor, not the showroom, that became Amazon's first field of robotization. Consumer robots were a different story. In September 2021 the company announced Astro, a small wheeled unit with Alexa integration and a trial Ring mode. Astro roams the home, watches through its camera, sends reminders, raises alerts and serves as a mobile speaker with a voice assistant. The business variant, Astro for Business, for site security, was discontinued (the end of the product was announced in July 2024), and the devices were remotely disabled in September 2024. The consumer version stayed on limited sale into 2026 at $1,449.99. The story of Astro shows that even the biggest technology player can stumble on a home robot if the product cannot live up to expectations. You can read more about robots with home ambitions in “1X Neo Home Robot on Pre-Order” and “Tesla Optimus: What We Actually Know (as of September 2026)”.

In the catalog, Amazon is represented by Amazon Astro, a home monitoring robot in the home-robot category. It went on sale in September 2021, costs $1,449.99 (about 5,620 PLN (≈ EUR 1,290 at NBP rate 4.3716 of 20 October 2026) at the conversion), and is used for home security and as an Alexa companion. The business variant was discontinued and remotely disabled in September 2024. It is mostly a camera and a speaker on wheels, not a manipulation robot: it does not grasp objects, clean or cook. If you expect real work from a home robot, look at humanoids with home ambitions such as the 1X NEO, Figure 03 or Tesla Optimus; none of them is a standard product yet, but they show the direction the market is moving. Our guide to choosing home robots is in the home robots section, and the uses are on the home page. If you are concerned about the privacy of such devices, read “Data Security: Robots with Cameras and the GDPR”. Astro has no arms or grippers, and its uses come down to home monitoring and acting as a mobile voice assistant, so it is better to keep expectations low.

Amazon is a player of gigantic scale in robotics, but has had limited success in home and service robots. Compared with dedicated home robots such as the NEO from 1X Technologies, Astro offers far less: it is more a camera on wheels than a household helper. In humanoid robots Amazon has appeared as a customer: tests of Digit from Agility Robotics in warehouses were announced in 2023, and rivals in the race for a home humanoid include Figure AI and Tesla. We have no data on the funding of the robotics division (Amazon is a public company), and its valuation is simply its stock-market capitalization, which we do not quote. The story of Astro for Business's withdrawal is a warning for companies planning to build site security on a robot that depends on the manufacturer's cloud: a remote lock-out means the end of operation regardless of the owner's wishes. For context on humanoids in the warehouse, see “Agility Digit in Warehouses”.

Astro is unavailable in Poland, and we have no announcement of a European expansion. There is no official distributor, and the indicative zloty price (about 5,620 PLN (≈ EUR 1,290)) is a conversion from dollars, not a domestic offer. We also know of no Polish deployments of Amazon's robots. You can check alternatives for home and office in the home robots section. Anyone who still wants to buy one has to look for it in the US and allow for the lack of a Polish warranty and possible limits on Alexa features outside its target market. Until the manufacturer announces official sales in Europe, it is better in this category to look at products you can buy with a local warranty.

Amazon Astro is a curiosity, not a sensible purchase: you cannot officially buy it in Poland, and beyond monitoring and a voice assistant it will do nothing. The story of the business version teaches caution with cloud-dependent robots. The direction shown by 1X Technologies and Figure AI deserves more attention. It is not worth basing site security or home automation on it, given that the manufacturer was able to disable the business version remotely. If you are looking for a robot for the home, wait for products that really manipulate objects, and treat Astro as a technology curiosity.