Skild AI raises $1.4B to scale omni-bodied robotics foundation AI

Skild AI has closed a blockbuster financing of $1.4 billion, a round that lifts the robotics AI specialist’s implied value to more than $14 billion. The financing is led by SoftBank Group and brings a broad syndicate of technology investors and strategic partners into the cap table, a move that positions the company to accelerate commercial roll‑out of its unified robotics model.

The round includes participation from a range of high‑profile backers: NVIDIA Ventures, Macquarie Capital, Bezos Expeditions, Disruptive, 1789 Capital, and well‑known VCs such as Lightspeed, Felicis, Coatue and Sequoia Capital. Strategic and corporate investors listed by the company include Samsung, LG, Schneider, CommonSpirit and Salesforce Ventures, while other financiers named are TF Capital, Andra Capital, Palo Alto Growth Capital, KIC, Alpha Square, Mirae Asset and Destiny. The fundraise also drew an endorsement from intelligence‑focused investor IQT (In‑Q‑Tel).

At the heart of the company’s pitch is the Skild Brain, described by founders as an "omni‑bodied" foundation model for Physical AI that can control diverse robot morphologies — from tabletop arms and mobile manipulators to quadrupeds and humanoids. According to CEO and co‑founder Deepak Pathak, the model is built to generalize across bodies and tasks rather than be hard‑coded for one chassis or use case.

Co‑founder and President Abhinav Gupta says a key innovation is in‑context learning: the model adapts its behavior at runtime when it encounters a new form factor or an unexpected fault — things like a jammed wheel or increased payload — without requiring lengthy retraining. Skild trains the Brain using a mix of human videos and physics-based simulation to overcome the lack of a universal robotics data stream.

Investors see a large market opportunity. Robotics and automation are being adopted across warehousing, last‑mile delivery, manufacturing, facilities inspection and construction, and a platform that can work across embodiments could unlock a broader TAM than today’s vertical solutions. Skild says it has already started commercial deployments and has rapidly scaled revenue to roughly $30 million in a short period, evidence investors cited when supporting the round.

Beyond the cash infusion, strategic partnerships with hardware and enterprise players could accelerate real‑world integration: corporate names in the investor group signal route‑to‑market potential in consumer devices, industrial automation and services. For incumbents and new entrants alike, the development of a hardware‑agnostic robotics brain raises questions about competitive dynamics, platform control and the future role of robot OEMs versus model providers.

With the new capital, Skild AI says it will scale model training, expand deployment engineering teams, and deepen integrations with partners and customers. The round reflects growing investor appetite for startups that combine large‑scale machine learning with physical systems — a space where commercial and national strategic interests increasingly intersect.