Thoughts Robotics spun out of rivian to develop bodily AI primarily based on actual manufacturing knowledge. Supply: Rivian
Thoughts Robotics Inc. this month raised $500 million in Collection A funding. The startup is constructing bodily AI techniques utilizing knowledge from present automotive manufacturing.
“Thoughts Robotics is constructing the world’s main industrial robotics platform, able to performing dexterous, variable, and reasoning-intensive duties,” it said. “The corporate was based to deal with a structural hole with present industrial automation options.”
“Current industrial robotics can carry out repeatable, dimensionally steady duties, however a big share of manufacturing unit value-add work requires human-like dexterity, adaptation, and bodily reasoning that classical robotics can’t handle,” the corporate mentioned. “Thoughts Robotics is constructing the AI basis—fashions, {hardware}, and deployment infrastructure—to shut that hole.”
Rivian helps robotics ‘knowledge flywheel’ for basic intelligence
In November 2025, Thoughts Robotics spun out of Rivian, an Irvine, Calif.-based electrical car maker. RJ Scaringe, founding father of each corporations, said that Rivian determined to “develop merchandise and robotic options that permit us to run and function our manufacturing crops extra effectively.”
“Our strategic partnership with Rivian gives production-scale knowledge from lively manufacturing strains,” mentioned the corporate on its website. “This fuels our robotics knowledge flywheel, enabling speedy iteration with a buyer able to deploy at scale. With Rivian as our accomplice, we’re capable of focus purely on technical execution.”
Thoughts Robotics mentioned its founders additionally embrace individuals from Bodily Intelligence, Waymo, Zoox, and Google. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based firm’s web site continues to be comparatively sparse, but it surely did say that it plans to construct robots that may “generalize throughout core duties” and work alongside people on the manufacturing unit ground.
Automobile makers testing humanoid robots embrace Hyundai, which is utilizing Boston Dynamics‘ Atlas; Mercedes-Benz, which has tried Apptronik‘s Apollo; BMW, which examined Determine AI‘s Determine 01 and 02; and Tesla, which makes Optimus.
Thoughts Robotics is constructing a ‘full stack’ of expertise and software program
Accel and Andreessen Horowitz led Thoughts Robotics’ Collection A spherical, which reportedly introduced its valuation to $2 billion. The corporate raised $115 million in a seed spherical led by Eclipse in November.
Thoughts Robotics mentioned it has funding from Tier 1 automotive suppliers. Sameer Gandhi, a accomplice at Accel, has joined the corporate’s board.
“RJ is without doubt one of the only a few founders who’ve constructed and scaled a vertically built-in {hardware} firm,” mentioned Sarah Wang, basic accomplice at investor a16z. “At Rivian, he architected the complete stack — car structure, electronics, battery techniques, embedded software program, manufacturing processes, and provide chains — integrating every layer right into a cohesive system. That type of end-to-end techniques management is exactly what it takes to construct a generational robotics firm and why we’re excited to again RJ and the Thoughts Robotics group.”
Open roles at Thoughts Robotics embrace analysis and modeling, a machine studying infrastructure engineer, an information engineer, a robotics software program engineer, and a {hardware} engineer.
Rivian final 12 months spun out micro-mobility developer Additionally with $105 million in funding from Eclipse Ventures, according to TechCrunch.
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