Bloomberg reported on June 12 thatNvidia,SamsungElectronics to invest in AI robotics startup Skild AI, acquiring a minority stake to strengthen their presence in the emerging consumer-grade robotics industry.
NVIDIA will invest $25 million (about 180 million yuan) in Skild and Samsung will invest $10 million, people familiar with the matter said.Skild is primarily focused on robotics software development.
These investments were part of Skild's Series B financing round, which valued the company at approximately $4.5 billion. SoftBank Group led Skild's round, investing $100 million in the company.
Right now.Robotics is fast becoming a key area of future growth for global tech companies.. Apple, Meta, Amazon and Google are all investing heavily in this space. Tesla, for its part, has long been preparing to launch its humanoid robot Optimus.
Currently, NVIDIA has begun to promote the concept of "physical AI" (physical AI), that is, AI systems that can act in the physical world, such as robots and self-driving cars. NVIDIA believes that as the technology matures, physical AI will become an important source of revenue. The chipmaker is providing semiconductors, software and services to accelerate the deployment of robots with the ability to think on their own.
Within Samsung, the company sees its investment in Skild as a way to maintain knowledge of and access to the startup and its talent without it having to make a major investment commitment. Another reason for Samsung's investment: to keep up with other large Korean conglomerates such as LG, Hanwha and Mirae Asset. Each of these conglomerates has invested between $5 million and $10 million in Skild.
However, Samsung believes that some of Skild's solutions are not as good as other competitors in the market, people familiar with the matter said.
As of this writing, NVIDIA and Samsung would not comment.Skild has not yet responded to a request for comment.