Nvidia, Samsung Plan Investments in Robotics Startup Skild AI
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The South Korean tech leader is making a $10 million investment in Skild, which develops software for robots, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Santa Clara, California chipmaker is putting in $25 million, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced plans.
The financing is part of the company's Series B funding round, which will value the company at around $4.5 billion and is led by a $100 million investment from Japan's SoftBank Group Corp.
Internally, Samsung views its Skild investment as a way to keep visibility into the startup and its talent without needing to make a significant commitment. Another reason: to keep pace with other South Korean conglomerates like LG, Hanwha and Mirae Asset, which all have divisions putting between $5 million to $10 million into Skild.
Nvidia has begun to push the idea of 'physical AI' — meaning robots and autonomous vehicles — becoming a significant future revenue driver as the technology matures. The chipmaker has semiconductors, software and services aimed at speeding up the deployment of robots that can think for themselves.
Samsung considers some aspects of Skild's solutions inferior to others in the market, said some of the people. Representatives for Samsung and Nvidia declined to comment. A representative for Skild didn't respond to an inquiry.
Robotics are quickly becoming a major area of future growth for the world's technology companies, with Apple Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google all investing heavily in the space. Tesla Inc., meanwhile, has long been preparing to ship its Optimus robot.
A few months ago, Samsung took a minority stake in Physical Intelligence, which also develops underlying robotics algorithms, with a small investment. The startup has already raised around $400 million and was last valued at about $2.4 billion. Nvidia has invested in companies like Figure AI and Serve Robotics.
Samsung already sells robot vacuums, but its ambitions go deeper to include humanoid robots and other household appliances.
Later this year, in partnership will Google, it will launch the Ballie, a soccer-ball-sized machine that can project video onto walls.
Samsung is also the largest shareholder of Rainbow Robotics, which makes humanoids. That company sits at the center of its work in the field.
--With assistance from Ian King, Kate Clark and Yoolim Lee.
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