The humanoid robot race is heating up, and it looks like Google is searching for a piece of the action. 

Apptronik is announcing a $350 million Series A funding round on Thursday, Yahoo Finance has learned. The round is being co-led by B Capital and Capital Factory, with participation from Alphabet-owned Google (GOOG, GOOGL), the company said. Apptronik's previous funding round was for $28 million.

Apptronik declined to share its post-capital raise valuation.

"I believe this raise signals an inflection point for the industry," Apptronik CEO Jeff Cardenas told Yahoo Finance. Cardenas said the funds will be used to scale up production and get the company's humanoid robots into commercial settings. 

The company was founded in 2016. Its humanoid robot "Apollo" — which uses Nvidia (NVDA) GPUs — is targeting primarily industrial and manufacturing use cases. To that end, Apptronik has inked commercial agreements with GXO Logistics (GXO) and Mercedes-Benz (MBG.DE, MBGAF). 

Over time, Cardenas envisions entering the healthcare and eldercare settings with its humanoids.

Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk's frequent promotion on his earnings calls of the company's new Optimus humanoid robot — which he sees as a big long-term revenue driver — has shed light on what is a fast-rising industry.

There could be 648 million humanoid robots moving around us by 2050, from about zero today, according to fresh research from Citi. The total addressable market (TAM) for humanoids may reach $209 billion by 2035 and $7 trillion by 2050, it said.

The top four use cases in terms of growth potential are parcel delivery, construction, food delivery, and home services.

There are more than 50 companies that have developed working humanoid robots, including Apptronik. Some noteworthy other players include Alfie, a robot butler from Prosper Robotics that apparently can make your bed, and Kime, the humanoid from Macco Robotics that is a bartender. 

"This has gone from sci-fi to development and is about to kind of launch into something very big," Citi Global Insights head of innovation technology and future of work Rob Garlick told me on Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid podcast (see video above; listen below).

Brian Sozzi is Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor. Follow Sozzi on X @BrianSozzi, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Tips on stories? Email brian.sozzi@yahoofinance.com.

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