Google Is Open-Sourcing Software for Robots, Forbes Reports

Forbes reported on September 22, 2026, that Google is open-sourcing software for robots. According to Forbes, Sundar Pichai called the software “the Android of robotics.” The report said the company aims to drive demand for high-value AI components.

If Google is making software for robots publicly available, developers may be able to reduce the burden of building foundational software themselves. Forbes, however, described the move as a strategy to target demand for high-value AI components, so making the software free does not necessarily mean giving up revenue.

What appears new in this report is that Google is opening up software for robots to external users by likening it to Android. The idea of distributing software widely and seeking demand for the computing resources and AI components above it, however, appears to extend the company’s platform strategy. The focus has shifted from the robots themselves to who controls the development platform. In related coverage, we have reported on a Waymo in-car camera detecting what appeared to be a rifle and on a FANUC AI welding agent using Google Cloud. Taken together with this report, these developments suggest that Google is involved in different layers around robotics, including surveillance, recognition, generation and development platforms. However, this report does not detail the product name, scope of distribution or adopters, and the software should not be treated as equivalent to Waymo’s vehicle controls or FANUC’s applications on factory floors. The implications for the industry structure appear to include a possible shift in the robotics market’s main battleground from hardware alone to the combination of OS-like software platforms and AI components. If the software is made available at no cost, barriers to entry may fall, but differentiation may shift to training data, connections to physical robots, inference platforms and safety implementation. Issues to watch include which functions are made available, the terms for commercial use, which types of robots are supported, and which AI components Google aims to monetize.

In Japan, how companies integrate control software and AI components, as well as manufacture robots, could become a point of competition. If Google opens up software for robots, compatibility with existing machines, maintenance and safety implementation will become more important for Japanese robot makers and system integrators.