VenHub, a Pasadena-born startup now planted in Las Vegas, plans to double its production capacity there in April by opening a second, larger manufacturing facility. The expansion is meant to move the company out of the showroom-and-demo phase and into higher-volume assembly and testing of its autonomous, employee-free Smart Stores. Executives say the new site will operate as an integrated hub for assembly, quality control and pre-deployment staging as VenHub works through a growing backlog of orders.
Pre-orders, a public listing and the Pasadena origin
According to Nasdaq, VenHub reports more than 1,000 pre-orders, which at current pricing represents an aggregate potential contract value of over $300 million. The company also began trading on Nasdaq under the ticker VHUB on Jan. 30, 2026, following a direct listing. VenHub traces its earliest work to a Pasadena workshop and lists 518 S. Fair Oaks Ave. as its original development address, with an early Smart Store prototype publicly demonstrated there in October 2023, according to company filings. An annual report filed with the SEC details that origin story and initial demo timeline.
Why Las Vegas and what the plant will do
VenHub says its second, larger Las Vegas facility will serve as an expanded hub for engineering, manufacturing, testing and deployment preparation, and that the added space will effectively double local production capacity and speed up nationwide rollouts, according to Pasadena Now. "The significant production capacity enabled by our second, larger facility in Las Vegas is a pivotal step forward for our ability to scale Smart Store deployments," CEO Shahan Ohanessian said in the announcement, as reported by that outlet. The company shifted key operations to Las Vegas in September 2025 while saying it would maintain engineering and some other capabilities in California.
Where the stores are popping up
VenHub has begun placing its Smart Stores in high-traffic transit locations through transportation partnerships. A flagship unit opened at the LAX/Metro Transit Center, and the company later announced a second LA Metro location planned for Los Angeles Union Station in its own releases. Newsfile covered those Los Angeles deployments. More recently, VenHub announced agreements with independent operators to install six additional Smart Stores across the Las Vegas metro area, targeting busy visitor and commuter corridors. A March 5 release from GlobeNewswire outlines those Las Vegas operator deals.
Production math and caveats
Company registration documents describe a "mega center" strategy that envisions a fully built-out Las Vegas mega center ultimately producing roughly 2,500 Smart Stores per year, with follow-on micro centers near demand hubs, according to VenHub's SEC registration materials. The same filing with the SEC notes that early Las Vegas assembly capacity was relatively modest, at about eight stores per month in the initial facilities, and that hitting the projected mega center throughput will depend on additional capital, supplier support and operational milestones. Local coverage points out that VenHub's pre-order and production figures come from press releases and securities filings and have not yet been independently verified, making actual conversion timelines something to watch. Pasadena Now specifically highlighted those verification caveats.
For VenHub, the Las Vegas expansion is an early test of whether autonomous retail can move past pilot sites and into repeatable, high-volume production. Company leaders say the new plant is slated to come online in April and is intended to support broader nationwide deployments over the rest of the year.
