Key Highlights:
- NVIDIA and SoftBank are considering a massive $1 billion investment in Skild AI, potentially raising the startup’s value to around $14 billion.
- Skild AI builds advanced foundation models for robots of all sizes, training them with huge datasets to improve perception and decision-making.
- Talks are still ongoing, but the deal could close before Christmas, adding to the recent wave of major AI investments across the industry.
As the AI era is booming, big tech giants are helping startups and emerging companies with funding. In yet another news, NVIDIA and Softbank Group from Japan are mulling over investing in Skild AI, according to an exclusive report by Reuters. Here we’re looking at investment figures of absolve $1 billion, which can bump up the valuation of Skild AI to approximately $14 billion. That’s a big number to reach for a startup that was founded just 2 years back.
For those uninitiated, Solid AI is a well-funded startup that makes foundation models for robots, aiming to make them more adaptable and intelligent for various tasks. If the investment is inked, it wouldn’t be the first one for Skild AI. Amazon and Lightspeed Venture Partners have already poured in multimillion-dollar investments separately.
One of the highlights of Skild AI is that it works on AI models for all-sized robots. In the past, the company has said that its technology uses “vast data” to train robots’ perception and decision-making skills similar to human beings. Citing an anonymous source, Reuters reported that SoftBank group “was impressed by Skild’s technology in pilot projects.”
That’s not all; robotics is apparently a major area of SoftBank CEO’s son’s plan. While the other details haven’t been confirmed at the time of writing this, Reuters did mention that “the talks remain fluid and some details could change,” and that the deal could be closed before this Christmas. There’s no word from NVIDIA at the moment, but we expect an official announcement if the deal is closed.
Speaking of investments, NVIDIA and Microsoft recently announced a partnership with Anthropic involving $15 billion. The trio of AI giants has formed a major three-way alliance to scale global AI infrastructure and adoption.
Source: https://www.timesofai.com/