Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics raises $500M to build AI-powered industrial robots, not cartwheelers

Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics raises $500M for industrial AI-powered robots | TechCrunch

Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics lab spun out of the electric vehicle maker Rivian, has raised $500 million in a Series A funding round co-led by venture firms Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. The financing, announced Wednesday, follows a $115 million seed round that was led by Eclipse in late 2025, bringing Mind Robotics' total fundraising to $615 million in the few months since its founding. This round brings the startup's valuation to around $2 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news. Mind Robotics was created by Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe. It was spun out of Rivian in November 2025, with Scaringe serving as chairman. The general idea is that Scaringe wants to use data from Rivian's electric vehicle factory to train industrial robots to be more dexterous and adaptable, as well as a venue to prove out those robots' usefulness. The company "was founded to address a structural gap with current industrial automation solutions," according to a press release announcing the Series A round. "Existing industrial robotics can perform repeatable, dimensionally stable tasks, but a large share of factory value-add work requires human-like dexterity, adaptation, and physical reasoning that classical robotics cannot address. Mind Robotics is building the AI foundation -- models, hardware, and deployment infrastructure -- to close that gap." Scaringe told the Wall Street Journal that Mind Robotics will have a large number of robots deployed by the end of this year. In the months since Mind Robotics was announced, he has spoken a few times about how the startup intends to focus on more traditional factory robot designs, instead of the much-hyped humanoid robots that have garnered so much attention over the last year, like those built by Tesla. "Doing cartwheels does not create value in manufacturing," Scaringe told the Wall Street Journal. Beyond the training data and a place to deploy the robots, there are other ways Rivian and Mind Robotics might collaborate moving forward. In December, Rivian announced it had been developing its own custom silicon meant to help power the autonomous vehicle software that will go on its cars. In an interview with TechCrunch at the event, Scaringe said "it doesn't take a lot of imagination" to think that Rivian might sell those custom chips to Mind Robotics. "It's a robotics processor, so it could work really well for that," he said. Mind Robotics is the second company Rivian spun out in 2025. The first was Also, an electric mobility company that is starting with a high-end modular e-bike as well as small electric cargo vehicles for Amazon. That startup was also backed by Eclipse, and has since raised another $200 million from Greenoaks Capital, with its valuation currently sitting around $1 billion.

Rivian's industrial automation spinoff Mind Robotics secures $500M in funding - SiliconANGLE

Rivian Automotive Inc. founder and Chief Executive RJ Scaringe's startup Mind Robotics said today it has raised $500 million at a $2 billion valuation in an early-stage round co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. Mind Robotics is extremely ambitious, intending to build a full-stack robotics platform that incorporates multipurpose robots plus the foundation models required to make them intelligent and autonomous. It's also building the deployment infrastructure needed to bring its robots into industrial and manufacturing environments. Accel partner Sameer Gandhi will join Mind Robotics' board following the Series A round, which is set to close before the end of the month, the company said. It comes after the startup closed on $115 million in a seed funding round led by Eclipse late last year. Mind Robotics was spun out of Rivian in November. Rivian is a publicly traded electric vehicle manufacturer, and it is both a partner and a major shareholder of Mind Robotics. It provides the startup with the data it needs to train its foundation models and its factories will give it an ideal environment to test and launch its robots once they're ready. The startup sees itself becoming a major player in industrial automation, developing more sophisticated robots that can perform complex tasks that require human-like adaptability, dexterity and advanced reasoning. In a press release, Mind Robotics said it was founded to address a "structural gap with current industrial automation solutions." Though robots are already widespread in factories, they remain somewhat limited. They can only really automate repeatable and "dimensionally stable" tasks in factories, but they fall short when it comes to the more complex and nuanced aspects of manufacturing. Scaringe told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that Mind Robotics intends to deploy a "large number" of its robots in Rivian's factories by the end of the year. In the months since the startup was first announced, he has talked at length about its focus on more traditional robot designs, as opposed to the "humanoid" style robots popularized by Elon Musk's Tesla Inc. His reasoning is simple: "Doing cartwheels does not create value in manufacturing," Scaringe said. Rivian intends to help Mind Robotics in other ways. For instance, it will also give the startup access to the custom processors it's developing for its own autonomous vehicles, once they're ready. Today's round is one of the largest Series A deals by any robotics firm, and it comes at a time when the manufacturing industry grapples with labor shortages and pressure to accelerate automation to deal with it. Both startups and established companies are racing to try to aid the industry. Though Tesla has stolen many of the headlines, Mind Robotics has a lot of rivals. Just yesterday, Rhoda AI emerged from stealth with $450 million in funding, and the German startup Neura Robotics GmbH is believed to be chasing an even bigger raise of $1.2 billion, according to reports earlier this month. The likes of Vention Inc., Sitegeist GmbH, Bedrock Robotics Inc., LimX Dynamics Inc. and RobCo Inc. have also raised money this year. Despite investor's considerable enthusiasm for robotics companies, many experts have cautioned that anyone trying to commercialize advanced robots faces a tough task. For one thing, training the foundational models required to power autonomous robots is incredibly tricky, as it requires vast amounts of hard-to-obtain data. Mind Robotics is not the first company to have been spun out from Rivian. It has also birthed a startup called Also Inc., a micromobility firm that's developing a high-end modular e-bike and small electric cargo vehicles for Amazon.com Inc. Also was also backed by Eclipse in its $105 million seed funding round, and has since raised an additional $200 million, bringing its valuation to around $1 billion.

RJ Scaringe Says He's Betting On Industrial Robots Instead Of Ones That Can Do Cartwheels As Rivian Spinoff Secures $500 Million Funding - Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN), Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)

Rivian Automotive (NASDAQ:RIVN)-spun robotics startup Mind Robotics has raised $500 million in a Series A funding round co-led by venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Accel. Startup's Funding Surges Months After Launch The latest financing follows a $115 million seed round led by Eclipse in late 2025, bringing Mind Robotics' total funding to roughly $615 million within months of its founding. The company was launched in November 2025 by Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe, who serves as chairman. Mind Robotics Targets AI Robots For Factories In a post on X, Scaringe said Mind Robotics is focused on developing an advanced industrial robotics platform designed to handle complex manufacturing tasks that require dexterity, adaptability and reasoning. A significant portion of investment in the robotics sector is currently flowing into systems designed for household tasks, Scaringe said. However, the industry has been filled with attention-grabbing demonstrations that highlight spectacle rather than practical applications in manufacturing. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Photo Courtesy: IM Imagery Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Mind Robotics Raises $500 Million to Improve Industrial Robots | PYMNTS.com

The company's Series A round, expected to close later this month, follows $115 million in seed funding Mind received last year, the startup said in a Wednesday (March 11) news release. The company, founded and led by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, said it was created to address a need it sees in today's industrial automation solutions. "Existing industrial robotics can perform repeatable, dimensionally stable tasks, but a large share of factory value-add work requires human-like dexterity, adaptation, and physical reasoning that classical robotics cannot address," the release said. "Mind Robotics is building the AI foundation -- models, hardware and deployment infrastructure -- to close that gap." Rivian is a partner and major investor in Mind Robotics, the release added, with the car company providing "a very large data flywheel" for training its models, while also offering access to its electro-mechanical engineering expertise and "substantial" production data. "Advanced robotics are going to be critical for global competitiveness, as well as addressing the substantial industrial labor shortages that exist today," Scaringe said. "We're building robots that will perform real tasks, in real plants, at real scale." In other robotics news, PYMNTS wrote Wednesday about the idea that physical AI -- meaning machines that "perceive, reason and act in the physical world" -- might be the more direct path to artificial general intelligence (AGI) than software in a data center. "Physical AI refers to systems that move beyond generating content into operating in real environments: robots, autonomous machines and the foundational models that teach them how to behave," the report said. "The category has been building momentum for years, but 2026 marks a credible inflection point. At CES in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang declared that the ChatGPT moment for robotics had arrived, suggesting the combination of AI models and computing infrastructure could soon unlock large-scale commercial adoption." Global humanoid robot installations came to around 16,000 units in 2025, with China making up more than 80% of deployments across logistics, manufacturing and automotive applications. Data from Morgan Stanley shows China filed 7,705 humanoid patents over a five-year period, five times the total in the U.S, and accounted for 54% of industrial robot installations worldwide. "The adoption curve is real, and the intelligence layer being built on top of it will determine which platforms run the next phase of industrial AI," PYMNTS wrote.

Mind Robotics, spun out of Rivian, valued at $2bn after fundraising round

The industrial robotics start-up has raised $500m in a Series A round led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics start-up spun out of electric vehicle maker Rivian, said it has raised $500m in a Series A financing round. The deal, co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz, values the Palo Alto-based company at about $2bn. The fundraising ranks among the largest ever at this stage for a company in the robotics sector. The company is developing an integrated platform combining foundational artificial intelligence models, robots designed for industrial use and deployment infrastructure. The aim is to automate production and manufacturing tasks at scale, as many industrial companies look to modernize their production lines and address labor shortages. Founded by RJ Scaringe, Rivian's chief executive and founder, Mind Robotics was separated from the automaker in November. Rivian remains a strategic partner and a major shareholder, providing data to train the AI models as well as an industrial environment to test the technologies. Unlike some start-ups in the sector, the company says it wants to focus on traditional industrial robots rather than humanoid robots.