Rivian launched a second spinoff company this year, an industrial AI and robotics venture called Mind Robotics.
According to the company’s third-quarter shareholder letter issued Tuesday, the new efforts will focus on “leveraging industrial AI to reimagine how businesses operate in the physical world and leverage Rivian’s operational data as the foundation for the robotics data flywheel.”
It’s a buzzword, and Rivian declined to elaborate further. Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said on an investor call Tuesday that the company recognized an opportunity to “develop products and robotic solutions that enable manufacturing plants to run and operate more efficiently.” Mr. Scaringe will serve as chairman of Mind Robotics’ board of directors, and Mr. Rivian is a shareholder, he said on a conference call, according to the filing.
“While we have seen AI change the way our businesses operate and operate through the wide range of applications in LLM, the potential for AI to actually change the way we think about operating in the physical world is, in some ways, almost unimaginable,” Scaringe said on the conference call. “The creation of this company is therefore the culmination of our desire to ultimately have direct control and direct influence over the design and development of advanced AI robotics with a focus on industrial applications.”
Mind Robotics has already raised $115 million in a seed round led by VC firm Eclipse. Jiten Behl, a partner at Eclipse who also worked at Rivian, revealed the investment in a LinkedIn post after TechCrunch previously reported the company’s involvement in an earlier version of this article.
The launch of Mind Robotics marks the second time this year that Rivian has formed a new independent company. In March, the company spun out Skunk Works’ micromobility division into a startup called Also Inc. The new company was partially funded by Eclipse, with additional funding from Greenoaks Capital.
It’s also unclear whether Rivian employees will transition to Mind Robotics, as was the case with Also. A Rivian spokesperson declined to comment. But the company hinted at that possibility in a letter Tuesday.
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“Our strong technology talent and innovation-driven culture have enabled us to identify additional areas of value to accelerate our mission on a broader scale while maintaining Rivian’s focus,” Scaringe wrote.
Robotics and industrial AI are hot areas for investment right now. A number of humanoid robot companies, including Tesla, are raising capital and trying to ship products. General Motors is also working on its own robotics and AI division.
But beyond Rivian’s announcement on Tuesday, little is known about what Mind Robotics plans to do. Other than trademark filings, the company essentially has no digital footprint yet. The scope of the application is so broad that Mind Robotics says the trademark could be used for everything from machines to vehicles and even “egg incubators.”
This article has been updated with new information from the regulatory filings in paragraph 3, the LinkedIn post in paragraph 5, and the call to investors.
