Bedrock Robotics raises $270M to deploy autonomous construction fleets across US projects

Bedrock Robotics raises $270M to scale autonomous construction fleets - SiliconANGLE

Bedrock Robotics raises $270M to scale autonomous construction fleets Autonomous construction technology startup Bedrock Robotics Inc. announced today that it had raised $270 million in new funding to accelerate its mission to transform how general contractors build, from deploying individual autonomous machines to orchestrating fully connected fleets that reshape productivity and safety. Founded in 2024 by experienced engineers, including veterans from Waymo LLC, Bedrock Robotics builds advanced autonomous systems for heavy construction equipment. The company applies machine intelligence to solve long-standing challenges in the construction industry, including autonomy solutions that help builders work faster, safer and more efficiently on large infrastructure projects. Bedrock's main platform, Bedrock Operator, offers a suite of hardware and software that transforms everyday heavy machinery, such as excavators, bulldozers and loaders, into autonomous assets. Operator uses sensors such as LiDAR, GPS and high-definition cameras, along with onboard computing, to perceive the environment, understand site conditions and carry out complex work tasks with high precision, instead of requiring human operators for every task. The technology used can be retrofitted into existing equipment and installed without permanent modifications to allow construction companies to upgrade existing fleets rather than buy entirely new machines. The platform also offers advanced planning and real-time mapping that actively adjusts actions as conditions evolve to help machines work around problems and complete tasks reliably. Bedrock's solutions come at a time when the U.S. construction industry needs nearly 800,000 workers over the next two years to keep up with demand, with project backlogs already climbing to eight months as of December 2025. Bedrock says that contractors are exploring its autonomy systems across a range of applications spanning port infrastructure, industrial facilities, data centers and large-scale earthmoving operations across multiple states. "The construction industry is being asked to build more than it can deliver," explains Boris Sofman, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bedrock Robotics. "Contractors are pulled across competing priorities with the same limited workforce and equipment." The Series B funding round was led by CapitalG LP and Valor Atreides AI Fund, with Xora Innovation, 8VC Management, Eclipse Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners, Perry Creek Capital, NVentures, Tishman Speyer Properties LP, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Georgian Partners, Incharge Capital and C4 Ventures also participating. "Hundreds of billions of dollars are flowing into construction, but the workforce simply isn't there to meet the moment," said Derek Zanutto, general partner at CapitalG. "Every major hyperscaler and developer is grappling with how to compress project schedules when labor constraints keep pushing them out." "Bedrock's technology is built on world-class autonomy expertise and we believe it will unlock the construction velocity this moment requires," added Zanutto. The new funding takes the total raised by Bedrock Robotics to more than $350 million.

Bedrock, an AI startup for construction, raises $270 million - The Economic Times

Bedrock Robotics plans to announce Wednesday that it has raised $270 million in a new fundraising round, valuing the roughly year-old startup at $1.75 billion. The round was led by CapitalG, an investment arm of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and the Valor Atreides AI Fund; other investors included 8VC and the venture arm of Nvidia.When it comes to autonomous vehicles, companies like Waymo and Tesla that operate fleets of robotaxis come to mind first. But a new startup is focusing on a different goal: automating multiton excavators and other construction vehicles to speed the building of housing, data centers and more. Bedrock Robotics plans to announce Wednesday that it has raised $270 million in a new fundraising round, valuing the roughly year-old startup at $1.75 billion. The round was led by CapitalG, an investment arm of Alphabet, Google's parent company, and the Valor Atreides AI Fund; other investors included 8VC and the venture arm of Nvidia. Behind the quick rise of San Francisco-based Bedrock is the proposition that artificial intelligence can drive significant benefits in the physical world, not just online. "We've seen how powerful these AI approaches are on the digital side," Boris Sofman, the company's co-founder and CEO, said in an interview. "What's fun here is that it's very practical." Several of Bedrock's founders and early employees hail from Waymo, including Sofman, who helped oversee the project that let Waymo's driverless cars operate on freeways. That experience is informing Bedrock's approach on issues such as how to deploy sensors like lidar on machines much bigger than a car. In some ways, Sofman said, Bedrock's task is easier: Piloting machines that move earth around to clear a construction site is less complicated than powering robotaxis across San Francisco. But excavators are still complex machines, and Bedrock plans to apply its technology to more types of construction equipment, such as those involved in demolition. The company's products can be added to existing equipment from major manufacturers like Caterpillar, John Deere and Komatsu, allowing the machines to be deployed quickly, Sofman added. A key part of Bedrock's pitch is that the company's products won't replace human labor, but augment it. The company points to forecasts from Associated Builders & Contractors, a trade group, that say the sector in the U.S. needs 349,000 new workers this year to meet construction demands. Next year, the group predicts, that number will rise to 456,000. "We're always stretched thin," said Trey Taparauskas, the CEO of Champion Site Prep, a contractor in the Austin, Texas, area, adding that tighter immigration policies have further restricted the industry's labor pool in recent years. Champion, which is among Bedrock's pilot users, is testing the startup's products on excavators working on several projects. For now, the machines are still being supervised by human operators as the software learns how people work. But so far, Taparauskas said, the results are promising, and offer the potential for greater efficiency and safety on work sites. "They developed their technology so fast that it blew our minds," he said of Bedrock. "We're three to five years ahead of where I would have expected to be when we first met these guys." The longer-term ambition of Bedrock, according to Sofman, is to help contractors finish more projects more quickly -- including by letting machines run 24 hours a day. That could help fulfill the pressing need for more factories and data centers, a stated goal of the Trump administration. That pace of development and the scale of the market opportunity were what drew CapitalG's interest, said Derek Zanutto, a general partner at the investment firm. A dinner last fall with Bedrock executives and some of its clients persuaded CapitalG to invest in the startup -- and to push Sofman into raising a new round of funding months ahead of schedule. "It's filling a void, fundamentally upleveling what humans on construction sites are doing," Zanutto said. "You can't build for the 21st century with a 1950s shovel and labor model."