Robotics software maker Skild AI hits $14B valuation

Skild AI, which makes foundation models for robots, seems to have more than tripled its valuation in just seven months.

The startup has raised a $1.4 billion Series C round that values it at more than $14 billion, Bloomberg reported. The round was led by SoftBank, and Nvidia, Macquarie Group, 1789 Capital, and others also invested.

Skild AI last raised funding at a $4.5 billion valuation this prior summer, Bloomberg reported. The company hasn’t disclosed the exact value of that round — it was rumored to be around $500 million — but Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak told Bloomberg that the company has now raised more than $2 billion to date.

TechCrunch has reached out to Skild AI for more information on its fundraising history, and we’ll update this piece when we hear more.

Founded in 2023, Skild AI builds general-purpose robotic software and foundation models that can be retrofitted to a variety of different robots and tasks without requiring a ton of additional training. The hope is that these models can also learn from watching humans perform tasks.

There has been a big push recently into this type of learn-as-you-go robotic software alongside the rising hype around humanoids.

One of the biggest hurdles in robot adoption for both personal and industrial use cases is the sheer amount of training required for robots to learn each and every new task. Being able to learn and adapt as they go would clear the path for more robotic adoption.

Field AI is another startup looking to build easily adapted robotic software. The maker of humanoid Neo, 1X, just released a world model in pursuit of the same goal.