Overview
- The company announced the $400 million financing on Thursday, taking its post-money valuation to $2 billion.
- Radical Ventures led the round and investors named by the company include Nvidia, Bezos Expeditions, 8VC, Union Square Ventures, Hanabi Capital, and individual tech backers such as Eric Yuan, Lin Bin, and Fei-Fei Li.
- Generalist AI builds software models that teach robots to learn physical tasks rather than making the robots themselves, and it plans to use the new capital to develop more advanced models.
- GEN-1, the startup’s latest model, is described by CEO Pete Florence as nearing commercial viability for very simple tasks, but the company has not given a timetable for wider deployment.
- The size of the raise and the mix of strategic investors underscore rising venture interest in AI-driven robotics and could speed adoption of software layers that make off-the-shelf robots more capable.