SIASUN(SZ:300024) Sou Hu Cai Jing·2026-01-16 10:44Core Insights - Skild AI, a startup in the foundational model for robotics, has raised approximately $1.4 billion in Series C funding, achieving a valuation exceeding $14 billion, setting a record in the field [1][5] - The investment round was led by SoftBank Group, with participation from major tech giants like Nvidia, Samsung, LG, Jeff Bezos' family office, and Salesforce, forming a diverse investment alliance across various sectors [5][12] Group 1: Company Background - Skild AI was co-founded by Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta, both professors at Carnegie Mellon University, who previously worked at Meta's advanced robotics lab, providing a unique blend of academic and industry experience [5][7] - The company aims to address the challenges in robotics by creating a universal robotic brain, Skild Brain, capable of running on standard hardware and performing basic tasks like climbing stairs and avoiding obstacles [7][8] Group 2: Technological Innovations - Skild Brain represents a paradigm shift in robotics, utilizing large-scale multimodal data for end-to-end training, moving away from fixed instruction sets [9][11] - The system's architecture decouples hardware from intelligence, allowing it to adapt to various robotic platforms and maintain robust performance even in changing environments [11][19] Group 3: Investment Dynamics - The diverse group of investors reflects strategic interests, with Nvidia aiming to fill gaps in its robotics technology stack, while SoftBank seeks to enhance its influence in the robotics industry [12][14] - For Samsung and LG, this investment signifies a strategic pivot towards robotics as a key growth area amid slowing consumer electronics [14] Group 4: Commercialization and Market Potential - Skild AI's commercialization efforts are accelerating, with plans to serve over eight enterprise clients by the end of 2025, spanning sectors like security, construction, and logistics [15][18] - The company addresses a significant market demand, particularly in industries facing labor shortages, where traditional robotic systems struggle due to high customization costs [15][22] Group 5: Challenges Ahead - Despite promising prospects, Skild AI faces challenges in ensuring the reliability of its technology in complex real-world environments, as well as balancing model performance with cost [19][21] - The fragmented state of the robotics hardware market poses additional challenges for achieving true universality in robotic applications [21][22]