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SoftBank is in talks to lead a funding round for artificial intelligence robotics start-up Skild AI that would more than double its valuation to close to $4bn, as Masayoshi Son hunts for deals to match his vaunted ambitions for the sector.
The fresh investment, which was confirmed by three people familiar with the matter, is set to eclipse the $300mn raised in the company’s first round in July and has been given the green light by the SoftBank founder.
However, the people cautioned talks were still at an early stage and there was no guarantee they would be successful. SoftBank declined to comment. Skild did not respond to a request for comment.
Skild, founded in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 2023, wants to build the world’s first scalable foundation model for robotics. The company says its model serves “as a general-purpose brain” so “any kind of robot can be agile, dexterous and safe to interact with people — providing significant potential for automation within real-world environments.”
In July, the company raised $300mn, valuing it at $1.5bn. That round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Coatue, SoftBank, and Jeff Bezos, through the Amazon founder’s Bezos Expeditions vehicle. Lightspeed is due to participate in this latest round, say people familiar with its thinking. Lightspeed declined to comment. It was not immediately clear which other funds planned to follow suit.
Robotics is emerging as a significant stage of the AI boom. At Tesla, Elon Musk is pivoting the car company to focus on building humanoid “Optimus” robots powered by models developed by his new start-up xAI. Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang said this month that robotics was a “multitrillion-dollar” opportunity, adding that his company was investing in new models and that it struck a deal with Toyota to use its self-driving car technology.
Skild is an increasingly typical target for the largesse of SoftBank and its now AI-focused Vision Funds, which have been progressively folded into the main company, with their investments often guided by Son directly.
Son’s vision for the future of AI is sprawling and ambitious, running from data centres, through to power generation, autonomous driving and robotics, with the chip design company Arm at the centre of his plans.
Last week, SoftBank and OpenAI — in which the Japanese group has a large stake — said they would launch a $500bn US artificial intelligence infrastructure project, dubbed Stargate.
The companies plan to spend $100bn on Big Tech infrastructure projects, with the figure rising to as much as $500bn over the next four years and SoftBank taking ultimate financial responsibility.
Son will chair the joint venture. Abu Dhabi’s AI-focused state fund MGX and Oracle are also providing funding for the project, while SoftBank-owned Arm, Microsoft and Nvidia will be technology partners.
Doubts have surfaced about Stargate’s grand ambitions. The FT reported last week that the project had not yet secured the funding it required, would receive no government financing and would serve only OpenAI once completed.
So far, SoftBank and OpenAI intend to put forward more than $15bn each for the project, hoping to raise a combination of equity from their existing backers and debt to fund Stargate.
Recent revelations by Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek, which has built an AI model on a small budget, have also cast doubt on whether western AI groups can sustain their leadership by spending billions of dollars on chips and computing infrastructure.
