SoftBank set to invest $500 million in robotics firm Skild AI

A pot filling with money

The Japanese bank SoftBank is reportedly in talks to invest $500 million into the robotics AI firm Skild AI. If successful, the funding round would bring the valuation of the company to $4 billion.

Skild AI, a US-based robotics company, will reportedly receive $500 million worth of funding from Japanese investment bank SoftBank, almost doubling its valuation.

The AI robotics company, established in 2023, was previously valued at $1.5 billion in its last funding round in 2024 when it secured investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, SoftBank Group, and Bezos Expeditions – the Amazon founder Jeff Bezo’s investment firm.

The series A funding round, which raised $300 million, also saw investment from Sequoia, Menlo Ventures, Felicis Ventures, General Catalyst, Amazon, SV Angel, CRV, and Carnegie Mellon University.

However, news of the recent investment, first reported by the Financial Times, is still at early stages and there’s no guarantee it will definitely go through. Yet, the Pittsburgh-based robotics company stands to more than double its valuation if it does to $4 billion.

On its website, Skild AI describes itself as a company that builds ‘general purpose robotic intelligence’ with hopes to ‘revolutionise the future of physical work by developing the first truly intelligent embodied system, to transform productivity and elevate human potential’.

These words are accompanied by images of the human-like robots working on a laptop, opening a fridge, and loading a dishwasher.

Robotics is emerging as a significant area of AI, with news of the potential investment from SoftBank hinting this. SoftBank recently made headlines for its large stake in America’s ‘Stargate’ plans, along with AI tech giant OpenAI, involving $500 billion investment in AI infrastructure in the country.

Skild AI CEO and co-founder Deepak Pathak said: “The large-scale model we are building demonstrates unparalleled generalisation and emergent capabilities across robots and tasks, providing significant potential for automation within real-world environments.

“We believe Skild AI represents a step change in how robotics will be scaled, and has the potential to change the entire physical economy.”

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