Almond is building robots for the era of physical AI.

I sat down with Saba Khalilnaji, Founder & CEO of Almond, inside the company's San Francisco factory to talk about building robots, scaling hardware, factory automation, and why Almond wants to become "America's robot factory."

Saba started building robots as a kid, later spent nearly seven years at DoorDash, and eventually left to work on one of the hardest problems in automation: getting robots to operate reliably in factories where the environment and tasks constantly change.

Today, Almond is building Axol, a dual-arm robot designed for physical AI, data collection, teleoperation and real-world deployment.

We cover why traditional automation struggles in high-mix manufacturing, what Saba learned from DoorDash, the rise of "neo-integrators," why deployments are Almond's North Star, manufacturing robots in San Francisco, and Almond's work on teaching Axol to help build Axol.

Saba Khalilnaji:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/saba-khalilnaji/

Almond:

https://www.almond.bot/

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑

• CoreWeave — The Essential Cloud for AI.

Join CoreWeave at Fully Connected in San Francisco, bringing together the people building the next generation of AI infrastructure and applications.

Learn more: https://www.coreweave.com/fully-connected-2026

𝐓𝐈𝐌𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐌𝐏𝐒

00:00 Inside Almond's San Francisco robot factory

01:02 A first look at Axol

02:12 Building robots as a kid

07:50 Science Olympiad and early robotics

11:56 Studying bioengineering at Berkeley

14:58 From robotics to DoorDash

18:19 What DoorDash taught Saba about moving fast

22:37 Why he left to start a company

25:10 How your environment shapes ambition

29:28 Discovering the automation problem inside factories

31:06 Why traditional factory automation struggles

34:49 What Almond is building

36:03 The rise of the "neo-integrator"

38:36 Why deployments are Almond's North Star

40:17 Building America's robot factory

43:09 Why Almond believes in owning the full stack

44:05 Teaching Axol to help build Axol

46:09 Saba's advice to his younger self

47:25 Why it's called Almond

49:25 Closing

Follow 22Astronauts:

Newsletter:

22astronauts.com

LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/company/22astronauts

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/_22astronauts_/

Ep 109 | Inside Almond: The $8,999 Physical AI Robot (w/ Saba Khalilnaji)

22Astronauts

Ep 109 | Inside Almond: The $8,999 Physical AI Robot (w/ Saba Khalilnaji)