Mind Robotics Partners with Rivian for Commercial Robotics Deployment

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. Mind Robotics Rivian

“…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…”

Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics raises $500M for industrial AI-powered robots The startup, which was created by Rivian founder RJ Scaringe, is looking to train on data from, and deploy in, Rivian's factory. https://lnkd.in/g5cjcR-t

Mind Robotics Chairman RJ Scaringe (CEO of Rivian): Our focus is to deploy robots doing real work, doing real jobs." Mind Robotics, aka 'Rivian" Robotics, has raised $500M in a funding: 1. Rivian is putting major efforts into manufacturing robots. 2. Rivian has put these activities into a separate entity. The round has been led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. The new round values the company at $2B The Wall Street Journal. Shares of Rivian Automotive were down 0.8% in Wednesday morning trading. Elon Musks talks about robots and the stock increases. RJ Scaringe ... and stock falls. WTH? Background: Mind Robotics was formed in 2025 as an industrial AI and robotics spinoff from Rivian Automotive to apply physical AI and robotics to manufacturing and other industrial operations. The goal for Mind Robotics' AI-powered robots is that they can perform physical work in Rivian's factories, as picking up parts, assembling components, and manipulating items such as wiring harnesses. Rivian has assisted Mind Robotics by training the AI in the robots by using data from thousands of cameras inside its factories. Time to talk about robotics in manufacturing and why some of them show the complexity of legs? #mobility #sustainability #robots #manfacturing Rivian Mind Robotics Andreessen Horowitz Accel a16z speedrun Eclipse GABA Northern California - German American Business Association GABA Southern California - German American Business Association

Rivian’s spin-out Mind Robotics raising $500M is an interesting signal about where industrial automation may be heading. Most discussions around robotics still focus on the physical layer, robotic arms, warehouse robots, or kitchen automation like what companies such as Miso Robotics are building. But the real shift may come from the “mind” behind the robots. In enterprise environments we have spent years building RPA, orchestration, and AI-driven workflows to automate digital processes. What Mind Robotics suggests is that similar thinking is starting to move into physical environments like factories. Instead of robots operating as isolated machines, they become part of a broader automation ecosystem where software, AI, and workflow automation coordinate the work. Factories at companies like Rivian, Amazon, and other modern manufacturers are increasingly software-defined environments, which makes them natural places for this convergence. As this direction is clearly picking up speed, demand for automation expertise will expand beyond back-office processes into core manufacturing operations, where digital workflows effectively become the control layer for fleets of physical robots. https://lnkd.in/e2HVNR6p

Remarkably Rivian & Mind Robotic’s strategy deviates from the mainstream humanoid robotics approach in AME. 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.

Rivian spin-out Mind Robotics raises $500M at $2B valuation! 🦄 Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics lab spun out of electric vehicle maker Rivian, just raised $500 million in Series A co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. This follows a $115 million seed round led by Eclipse in late 2025, bringing total fundraising to $615 million in just a few months since founding. Valuation is around $2 billion. Mind Robotics was created by Rivian CEO and founder RJ Scaringe, who serves as chairman. Their strategy is to use data from Rivian's electric vehicle factory to train industrial robots to be more dexterous and adaptable, and use the factory as a venue to prove out those robots' usefulness. The gap they're addressing: "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." Scaringe told the Wall Street Journal that Mind Robotics will have a large number of robots deployed by the end of this year. The focus is on traditional factory robot designs, not humanoid robots. "Doing cartwheels does not create value in manufacturing," Scaringe said. 🤸🏼 In December, Rivian announced it had been developing custom silicon for autonomous vehicle software. Scaringe said "it doesn't take a lot of imagination" to think Rivian might sell those custom chips to Mind Robotics. Mind Robotics is the second company Rivian spun out in 2025. The first was Also, an electric mobility company starting with high-end modular e-bikes and small electric cargo vehicles for Amazon, backed by Eclipse with $200M from Greenoaks Capital at $1B valuation. This is the vertical integration play. Rivian builds the factory, collects the data, trains the models, deploys the robots, proves them out at scale, then sells to other manufacturers. The factory becomes the training ground for the robotics business. There so many news in robotics that I can barely put my hands off my laptop... Let me live! 🫩 ~~ ♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news → ziegler.substack.com

The R2 reveal grabbed all the headlines, but Rivian's other big move is flying under the radar. Mind Robotics, the industrial robotics company RJ Scaringe spun out of Rivian, just closed a $500M Series A co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. That is $615M raised with a $2B valuation in just a few months. While the industry chases humanoid robots doing backflips, Scaringe is building AI-powered robots that do real work on real production lines using Rivian factory data as the training ground. Between R2, ALSO and Mind Robotics, Rivian is quietly becoming much bigger than an EV company. The investors clearly see it too. https://lnkd.in/e_92XGQF

Rivian’s Mind Robotics just secured $500M to drive industrial AI robotics forward—proof that tech-driven automation is accelerating manufacturing innovation. How do you see AI reshaping workflows in your industry? Share your thoughts! [via TechCrunch]

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