By Akash Sriram and Krystal Hu
Publication Date: 2025-12-08 15:39:00
By Akash Sriram and Krystal Hu
Dec 8 (Reuters) – Japan’s SoftBank Group (9984.T) and Nvidia (NVDA) are in talks to invest in Skild AI, in a more than $1 billion funding round that could value the maker of foundation models for robots at around $14 billion, according to sources and a term sheet seen by Reuters.
If successful, the funding will be at nearly triple Skild’s valuation from the $4.7 billion it commanded in a $500 million Series B round earlier this year that saw participation from Nvidia, LG’s venture capital arm and Samsung, among others, according to PitchBook data.
Founded in 2023 by former Meta (META) AI researchers and backed by Amazon.com (AMZN) and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Skild is trying to overcome a key hurdle that has slowed the broader deployment of general-purpose machines in factories and homes by developing universal software designed to serve as the brain for robots.
The company focuses on AI models for robots of all form factors rather than building any hardware of its own, and has said its technology uses vast data to teach robots perception and decision-making skills similar to those of humans.
The talks underscore surging investor interest in humanoid robotics firms as advances in artificial intelligence make such robots increasingly capable of performing complex tasks.
Still, experts caution that truly general-purpose robotic applications remain technically challenging and could still be years…
