Walden Robotics emerges with $300M to build humanoid robots that learn on factory floors

Walden Robotics launches with $300M, and no legs

Walden Robotics has launched from stealth with $300m and a $1.1bn valuation. The Toyota spin-out builds humanoids for factories, and it left off the legs on purpose. "If you listen to the people on the factory floor, they aren't ready, and they don't want them yet." That is Russ Tedrake, telling Bloomberg why his new robots roll on wheels instead of walking on legs. Tedrake runs Walden Robotics, a Cambridge startup that came out of stealth on Wednesday with $300m in funding and a $1.1bn valuation. It is a Toyota spin-out, and its robots already work in a Toyota factory. Toyota and Deviation Capital co-led the seed round. Nvidia, Boeing, Samsung Ventures, and CoreWeave Ventures also put money in. That is a heavy roster for a company barely six months old. Wheels, not legs Most humanoid firms are chasing robots that walk. Walden went the other way. Its machines pair a humanoid upper body with a wheeled base, a choice Tedrake puts down to safety and practicality. Wheeled robots slow and stop around people more easily, so they clear existing factory safety rules. They also carry bigger batteries and more computing power. For a machine built to work a full shift, that beats looking human. Already on the job Walden is not selling a promise. Since February, its robots have run in production at a Toyota plant in North America, one of them working eight-hour shifts beside human teams. They take the dull, fiddly jobs: loading and unloading car parts, cleaning machinery, and kitting parts for assembly. The company spun out of the Toyota Research Institute in January and builds its own hardware, software, and AI. Its robots run on Large Behavior Models, a class of AI the team helped pioneer that lets them pick up new tasks and improve through practice. Customers now span automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, electronics, logistics, and life sciences. "Providing real value to customers... requires a deep understanding and respect for how manufacturing is done today," Tedrake said at launch. Toyota's chief technology officer, Hiroki Nakajima, framed it in the company's own language of kaizen and jidoka, and of keeping people at the centre. A crowded, unproven race Walden joins a stampede. 1X, LimX, and Booster are pouring billions into humanoids, and carmakers are adding them to plants. Hyundai is scaling up Boston Dynamics' Atlas. Morgan Stanley reckons the market could top $5tn by 2050. Tedrake will not oversell it. "Everyone recognises the magnitude of the opportunity and the technology feels ready, but success is not assured," he said. "You have to think through the business case, the unit economics." The name is a tell. Walden, after Thoreau, is meant to signal robots that free people for better work, not replace them. Whether wheels or legs win the factory floor, Walden has a head start, and a Toyota plant to prove it in.

US Toyota spinout's factory robots learn from experience on the job

A US robotics startup has emerged from stealth with a general-purpose robotics platform designed to deploy Physical AI robots that learn and improve while performing real work. Rather than relying on pre-programmed workflows, Walden Robotics' offerings continuously adapt through real-world operations, enabling them to handle difficult-to-automate tasks alongside human workers from day one. Walden says its full-stack approach combines hardware, AI, and deployment software to create robots that become more capable over time, targeting industries including automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, electronics, logistics, and life sciences. The company also announced $300 million in funding at a $1.1 billion valuation. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based startup is targeting manufacturing and logistics, where labor shortages, increasing product complexity, and pressure for higher productivity are driving demand for more flexible automation. Although the company has not released detailed specification of its offering, Walden says its robots can be deployed into production environments from day one, handling difficult-to-automate tasks while continuously improving their performance through ongoing operation. Rather than relying on fixed automation or task-specific programming, the company's robots use AI models that enable them to acquire new skills through real-world experience, allowing them to adapt to changing production needs while working safely alongside human employees. At the heart of the system are Large Behavior Models (LBMs) and Diffusion Policy, AI techniques that allow robots to learn complex manipulation and decision-making skills instead of following rigid, pre-programmed workflows. According to the team, by combining these foundation models with proprietary hardware, perception systems, deployment software, and real-world operational data, Walden aims to create robots that become more capable over time rather than requiring extensive reprogramming for every new task. Walden was spun out of the Toyota Research Institute in January 2026 and has already begun deploying its robots with industrial customers. Since February, its general-purpose robots have been performing production work at a Toyota manufacturing plant in North America, progressing from an initial pilot to active factory operations in less than two months. The company says it is also working with strategic partners across the automotive, aerospace, semiconductor, electronics, logistics, and life sciences sectors. According to co-founder and CEO Dr. Russ Tedrake, who previously served as Senior Vice President of Large Behavior Models at Toyota Research Institute and is a professor at MIT, the company is focused on delivering practical value through close collaboration with manufacturers rather than pursuing robotics demonstrations in controlled environments. Alongside its public debut, Walden announced $300 million in seed funding, valuing the company at $1.1 billion. The round was co-led by Toyota and Deviation Capital, with participation from NVIDIA, Boeing, Samsung Ventures, AE Ventures, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and several other investors. Recently, another US-based firm Robot.com, has launched R-Noid, a humanoid robot designed to automate repetitive, labor-intensive tasks across industries including logistics, manufacturing, healthcare, hospitality, and food service. Offered through a Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, the company says the robot can be deployed from site assessment to autonomous operation within eight to twelve weeks. R-Noid is available in five application-specific configurations -- Restaurant Assistant, Packer, Picker, Folder, and Host -- addressing persistent labor shortages while improving productivity. The humanoid combines autonomous mobility, AI-powered manipulation, and human-interaction capabilities on a unified platform. It features dual 7-degree-of-freedom robotic arms capable of lifting to 4 kilograms each and a 4-DoF articulated torso, enabling it to reach from floor level to 1.9 meters for warehouse, retail, and production tasks.