Mind raises $400M, partners with Rivian

Mind Robotics said on May 13 that it had raised $400 million in new funding, lifting total capital raised to more than $1 billion in less than a year. The company is developing industrial robots and AI systems aimed at automating factory tasks that still require human dexterity. Rivian, which spun out Mind in late 2025, is both a shareholder and an early deployment partner, according to Rivian disclosures and prior company statements. The new round comes two months after Mind announced a $500 million Series A. ### How much money has Mind raised, and who backed this round? Mind’s latest $400 million financing was led by Kleiner Perkins, TechCrunch reported on May 13, citing the company and earlier Wall Street Journal reporting. Volkswagen’s venture arm and Salesforce Ventures also participated, according to that report. The new financing follows a $500 million Series A announced on March 11 and a $115 million seed round disclosed when Rivian unveiled the company in November 2025. Those three rounds put Mind’s total funding above $1 billion. The Wall Street Journal, as cited by TechCrunch, said the latest round valued Mind at more than $3 billion. (techcrunch.com) ### What exactly is Mind building? Mind said in March that it was created to address factory work that conventional industrial robots still struggle to do. In its Series A announcement, the company said many “value-add” manufacturing tasks require human-like dexterity, adaptation and physical reasoning that classical robotics cannot handle. (techcrunch.com) RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s founder and chief executive, has described the effort as building “robotics with human-like skills.” He told The Wall Street Journal in comments reported by TechCrunch that the company was focusing on practical factory robot designs rather than humanoid machines. “Doing cartwheels does not create value in manufacturing,” he said. (techcrunch.com) ### Why does Rivian matter beyond being an investor? Rivian said when it introduced Mind in November 2025 that the new company would use Rivian operations data as the basis for a robotics “data flywheel.” On an investor call at the time, Scaringe said Rivian wanted direct influence over advanced AI robotics designed for industrial use, and he said Rivian was a shareholder in the company. (techcrunch.com) The March financing report added a second role for Rivian: factory proving ground. TechCrunch reported that Scaringe wanted to use data from Rivian’s electric-vehicle factory to train robots to become more dexterous and adaptable, while also using the plant as a place to test whether those systems work in production. (techcrunch.com) Rivian’s own first-quarter 2026 results also showed the relationship had financial consequences for the automaker. The company said on April 30 that its quarterly net loss benefited from a $506 million gain tied to Mind Robotics’ Series A raise and related deconsolidation. ### How does this fit into Rivian’s broader strategy? November 2025 was when Rivian first disclosed Mind as its second spinout of that year, after the micromobility company Also. (techcrunch.com) Scaringe serves as chairman of Mind, according to prior reporting and company disclosures. Rivian has also been building adjacent technology that could overlap with Mind’s needs. (rivian.com) In December, Rivian said it had been developing custom silicon for its autonomy stack, and Scaringe told TechCrunch that the processor could also work for robotics applications. ### What comes next for Mind and Rivian? (techcrunch.com) Scaringe told The Wall Street Journal in comments reported by TechCrunch in March that Mind would have a large number of robots deployed by the end of 2026. The company has also said the fresh capital will support further development of its models, hardware and deployment infrastructure. (techcrunch.com) Rivian, meanwhile, said on April 30 that external customer deliveries of its R2 vehicle were expected in the coming weeks and that production at its Georgia plant remains on track to begin in late 2028. Those manufacturing milestones give Mind a named industrial partner and a multi-year test bed as it expands hiring across research, software and hardware. (rivian.com) (techcrunch.com)