Rivian spinoff Mind Robotics raises $400M

Mind Robotics said on May 13 that it raised $400 million in a new financing round led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing total investment in the Rivian spinout to more than $1 billion. The Palo Alto, California-based company said the money will be used to expand deployment of AI-powered robots in manufacturing environments. Reuters reported the round valued Mind Robotics at $3.4 billion, citing a source familiar with the matter. RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s founder and chief executive, founded Mind Robotics in 2025 as a separate company focused on industrial automation. Mind Robotics said Rivian remains a key partner and shareholder, giving the startup access to a live, high-volume manufacturing setting for training and deployment. The company said its platform combines foundation models, robotics hardware and deployment infrastructure for manufacturing tasks that require dexterity and physical reasoning. (businesswire.com) ### How fast has Mind Robotics raised money? March 11, 2026 marked Mind Robotics’ previous financing, a $500 million Series A co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz. That round followed a $115 million seed financing in late 2025, according to company statements. With the latest $400 million raise, the company has now collected more than $1 billion in under a year. (businesswire.com) Reuters reported on May 13 that the latest round lifted Mind Robotics’ valuation from about $2 billion in March to $3.4 billion. The financing added new investors including Meritech Capital, Redpoint Ventures, SV Angel, Incharge Capital, A-Star Capital and Garuda Ventures, while existing backers including Accel, Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Prysm Capital, Bain Capital Ventures and Greenoaks also participated, the company said. (businesswire.com) ### What exactly is Rivian’s role in the startup? Rivian is both a shareholder and an operating partner for Mind Robotics, according to the startup’s March and May financing announcements. Mind Robotics said Rivian provides a large manufacturing data set and a real factory environment where the systems can be trained and deployed. The Robot Report described Rivian as the first customer for the robots under development. (srnnews.com) As of March 31, 2026, Rivian’s ownership interest in Mind Robotics was about 38% on a shares-outstanding basis, according to Rivian’s first-quarter 2026 shareholder presentation. That filing also listed Mind Robotics among Rivian’s strategic investments. (businesswire.com) ### Why does the Normal, Illinois plant keep coming up? Normal, Illinois is Rivian’s only U.S. vehicle manufacturing plant now in operation. Rivian said on April 2 that it produced 10,236 vehicles there and delivered 10,365 in the quarter ended March 31, 2026. The company has also been expanding the site as it prepares higher-volume production. (marketscreener.com) Rivian said in March 2025 that its Normal expansion would support the launch of the R2 from the existing plant, with deliveries planned in 2026. Mind Robotics has said Rivian’s manufacturing environment is central to training and deploying its systems, linking the robotics effort directly to the automaker’s assembly operations in Illinois. ### What did the company and investors say about the new round? (rivian.com) “We are excited about the technology and product roadmap we are developing at Mind, with a focus on scaled deployments,” Scaringe said in the May 13 announcement. He added that the company was “proud to have Kleiner Perkins and our full investor coalition behind us.” (stories.rivian.com) Ilya Fushman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, said in the same statement that “advances in models and hardware are coming together” to make broader robotics deployment possible. He said Mind Robotics had access to the ingredients needed to make general-purpose robotics work in real-world manufacturing. (businesswire.com) ### What comes next for the Rivian-Mind Robotics relationship? In 2026, Mind Robotics plans to expand deployments in live manufacturing environments, and Rivian has positioned its Normal plant as that launch site, according to company statements. Rivian has already begun customer production of the R2 in Normal, the automaker said in late April, as it prepares for broader 2026 deliveries. (businesswire.com) The next public milestones are likely to come from Rivian’s production and delivery updates and from any additional disclosures about Mind Robotics deployments at Normal. Rivian has tied the Illinois plant to its 2026 manufacturing plans, while Mind Robotics has tied the new financing to scaled industrial rollouts with Rivian as a named partner and shareholder. (rivian.com) (businesswire.com)