SoftBank and Nvidia are reportedly in talks to fund Skild AI at $14 billion, nearly triple its value

SoftBank Group and Nvidia are in talks to lead a more than $1 billion investment at a $14 billion valuation in Skild AI, a software company that builds a basic model for robotics, Reuters reported.

The roughly three-year-old startup was valued at $4.7 billion in May when it raised $500 million in a round led by SoftBank with participation from LG Technology Ventures, Samsung, Nvidia and others, according to PitchBook data. Skild did not immediately respond to a request for comment. SoftBank and Nvidia declined to comment.

Unlike other big-funded startups, Skild AI doesn’t build proprietary hardware. Instead, it is developing a basic model that does not rely on robotics and can be customized for different types of robots and use cases.

The company unveiled its general-purpose robot model Skild Brain in July, with videos showing the robots picking up dishes and climbing up and down stairs. The company has secured strategic partnerships with LG CNS and Hewlett Packard Enterprise to develop its ecosystem.

Investor interest in artificial intelligence robots is steadily increasing. Physical Intelligence, another company developing “brains” for a wide range of robots, recently reportedly raised $600 million at a valuation of $5.6 billion led by CapitalG. One of the investors who evaluated Physical Intelligence but declined to fund it told TechCrunch that its model is still in the early stages of development.

In September, Figure, a company developing a humanoid robot, raised more than $1 billion at a whopping $39 billion valuation. Meanwhile, 1X, another developer of humanoid robots, is in talks to secure up to $1 billion at a $10 billion valuation, The Information reported several months ago.