Gecko Robotics Wins Navy Contract and Amazon Acquires Fauna Robotics

Gecko Robotics secured a landmark five-year IDIQ contract with the U.S. Navy worth up to $71 million, starting with an initial $54 million award . The Pittsburgh-based company will deploy its wall-climbing robots and AI-powered sensors to inspect 18 warships in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, including guided-missile destroyers and littoral combat ships. Gecko's technology can condense a three-month manual inspection process down to as little as two days, helping the Navy reach its goal of 80% ship readiness by 2027.

The contract dwarfs Gecko's previous lifetime revenue of roughly $60 million as of end-2024, signaling that the company may be approaching IPO readiness. Gecko, privately valued at approximately $1.25 billion, has positioned itself at the intersection of defense modernization and robotics, two sectors attracting significant government and investor capital .

In a separate development, AMZN confirmed its acquisition of Fauna Robotics, a startup founded by former Meta and Google engineers that builds a $50,000 bipedal humanoid robot called Sprout . Standing 3 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 50 pounds, Sprout is designed for social interaction in homes and schools rather than industrial labor. Fauna had already signed Disney and Hyundai's Boston Dynamics as early customers. The deal positions Amazon in the growing humanoid robotics market, though analysts note it is not a direct threat to TSLA's Optimus labor robot given Sprout's consumer focus.