FT: Toyota Formalizes $6.4B-a-Year Plan Needing 400,000 Robots From 2028, Backed by Walden Spinout

Financial Times reports Toyota is formalizing its roughly $6.4 billion-a-year factory automation plan requiring about 400,000 robots across Toyota, group companies, and suppliers starting in 2028, framed as its answer to Tesla and Chinese humanoid programs. Walden Robotics, the Toyota Research Institute spinout that emerged in July with $300 million at a $1.1 billion valuation, already runs wheeled factory humanoids at a Toyota plant in North America. The underlying $6.4B/400,000 figures first surfaced in September; the FT piece lays out Toyota's broader strategy, including a new assembly plant near Nagoya opening in the early 2030s.