Nvidia has also invested in robot companies such as Figure AI and Serve Robotics.
Samsung Electronics and Nvidia plan to invest in robot software startup Skild AI.
People familiar with the matter revealed that Samsung and Nvidia will invest US$10 million (about S$12.8 million) and US$25 million (about S$32.04 million) respectively, and the relevant plans have not been officially announced.
At present, Samsung already has a sweeping robot product and plans to jointly launch a home robot with image projection with Google this year. Meanwhile, Samsung is also the largest shareholder of humanoid robot maker Rainbow Robotics, and invested in another startup that develops robot algorithms on a small scale a few months ago.
It is said that Samsung internally regards this investment as one of the ways to observe Skild's technology and talents, and also intends to follow the pace of large Korean companies such as LG, Hanwha and Future Assets. These companies have also invested $5 million to $10 million in Skild respectively.
Nvidia regards this move as an important step in promoting the strategy of physical artificial intelligence (physical AI, i.e. robots and autonomous vehicles). Nvidia is developing related chips, software and services to accelerate the implementation of robots with independent thinking capabilities.
The financing is part of Skild's Series B financing, led by Japan's SoftBank Group, with Skild expected to be valued at $4.5 billion.
Global technology giants are rushing to invest in robotics, including Apple, Meta, Amazon and Google's parent company Alphabet, etc., and Tesla is preparing to launch the humanoid robot "Optimus".