THG News · Partnerships

Sanctuary AI Inks Pilot With Shopify for E-Commerce Fulfillment

June 13, 2026

Sanctuary AI and Shopify announced on June 13 a 14-month pilot deploying 30 Phoenix-7 humanoids across three Shopify Fulfillment Network hubs in Ontario, Texas, and Nevada. Phoenix robots will handle pick, pack, and sortation tasks for small and mid-size merchant orders.

The pilot is unusual in that Shopify is not a manufacturer or 3PL incumbent — the partnership signals that humanoid economics may now be reachable for distributed e-commerce networks, not just large warehouse operators.

Sanctuary CEO Geordie Rose said Phoenix-7 includes a new tactile fingertip array providing 1,000 Hz force feedback per finger — "the first hand that genuinely deserves the word 'dexterous.'"