SoftBank and Nvidia are reportedly in talks to fund Skild AI to the tune of $14 billion, almost triple its value.
SoftBank Group and Nvidia are in talks to lead an investment of more than $1 billion, valued at $14 billion, in Skild AI, a software company that is building a fundamental robotic model, Reuters reported.
The nearly three-year-old startup was last valued at $4.7 billion in May when it raised $500 million in a round led by SoftBank with participation from LG Technology Ventures, Samsung, Nvidia and others, according to PitchBook data. Skild did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SoftBank and Nvidia declined to comment.
Unlike other heavily funded startups, Skild AI doesn’t build proprietary hardware. Instead, it develops a basic robot-agnostic model that can be customized for different robot types and use cases.
The company unveiled its Skild Brain multipurpose robot model in July with videos showing robots picking up dishes and going up and down stairs. The company has formed strategic partnerships with LG CNS and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to expand its ecosystem.
Investor interest in AI robotics continues to grow. Physical Intelligence, another company developing “brains” for a wide range of robots, reportedly recently raised $600 million at a $5.6 billion valuation led by CapitalG. One investor who evaluated but declined to fund physical intelligence told TechCrunch that his model was still in the early stages of development.
In September, Figure, a company developing a humanoid robot, raised over $1 billion at a massive valuation of $39 billion. Meanwhile, 1X, another developer of humanoid robots, was in talks to raise up to $1 billion at a valuation of $10 billion, The Information reported several months ago.
