SoftBank Eyes Investment in Robotics Startup Skild AI

When it comes to tech investment, SoftBank rarely misses. The Japanese investment firm is one of the largest players in global technology innovation with a portfolio of companies in areas like advanced telecommunications, internet services, AI, smart robotics, IoT and clean energy. 

Dig a little deeper into that list and you’ll find some of the most high-profile global names including Uber, Slack, WeWork, Arm Holdings and more. SoftBank invests in AI and other new and emerging technologies to drive the information revolution for the betterment of humanity. 

That means companies like AI robotics startup Skild AI, with which SoftBank is negotiating a $500m investment according to reports by Bloomberg and The Financial Times. 

SoftBank is already an investor in Skild AI. In summer 2024 the startup raised approximately $300m at a $1.5bn valuation from investors including Jezz Bezos, Lightspeed Venture Partners and SoftBank Group. 

Franziska Bossart who heads the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund - one of Skild AI's investors - said the startup is "advancing the state of the art in AI and robotics, applying its techniques to an array of commercial, industrial, and consumer use cases that stand to benefit from greater autonomy". 

Skild AI: elevating human potential

Skild AI was founded in 2023 by Deepak Pathak and Abhina Gupta, two university professors experienced in the AI industry having previously worked as AI research at Meta Platforms. Its team also includes leading robotics and AI experts from the likes of Meta, Tesla, Nvidia, Amazon and Google. 

Pathak said: "“The large-scale model we are building demonstrates unparalleled generalisation and emergent capabilities across robots and tasks, providing significant potential for automation within real-world environments. We believe Skild AI represents a step change in how robotics will be scaled, and has the potential to change the entire physical economy."

Skild is building a general-purpose brain for robots with the goal of creating a flexible, scalable AI platform that enables robots to perform a variety of tasks across different environments. 

Whereas traditional robotic systems need task-specific datasets, Skild’s technology will allow robots of any form (humanoid and quadruped) to learn and adapt to new tasks without being fed pre-programmed instructions. 

The startup says that its Skild Brain technology is the first scalable robotics foundation model and claims it will transform productivity and elevate human potential. 

This will be important for the adoption and use of low-cost robots across a broad range of industries and applications in the future, particularly in sectors like healthcare, construction, warehousing and supply chain, and manufacturing, which are facing current and projected labour shortages. 

AI investment on the rise

The robotics and AI sectors have seen significant investor interest over the last year, showing the pace of innovation. 

In February 2024 Figure AI, a startup developing an AI-powered humanoid robot raised investment from global names like Microsoft, the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, and the OpenAi Startup Fund. Another, Physical Intelligence, raised funding from Jeff Bezos, Lux Capital, and Thrive Capital for its general purpose AI. 

SoftBank is also a key player in the space. It is a partner in The Stargate Project, recently announced by President Donald Trump, who said it was “the largest AI infrastructure project by far in history”. 

Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia and OpenAI are Stargate’s key technology partners and will collaborate to build and operate the system. 

In an announcement SoftBank said Stargate will secure American leadership in AI, create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and bring significant economic benefits for the entire world. 

It added that Stargate will also provide a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.

Reports have stated that SoftBank's negotiations with Skild AI are in preliminary stages and there is no certainty that they will come to fruition.

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