Who is the CEO of Skild AI?

Deepak Pathak is the CEO of Skild AI. The company was founded in 2023.

Where is Skild AI located?

Skild AI is headquartered in Pittsburgh, USA.

What funding stage is Skild AI at?

Skild AI is currently at the Established stage.

How many employees does Skild AI have?

Skild AI has approximately 51-200 employees.

Skild AI

Category: Robotics / Embodied AI

A robotics AI company developing a general-purpose foundation model (the 'Skild Brain') designed to empower diverse robot hardware with human-like adaptability and intelligence. Skild AI was founded in 2023. The company is led by Deepak Pathak. Based in Pittsburgh, USA. Team size: 51-200. Total funding raised: ~$1.7B total (all rounds). Latest round: Series C ($1.4B, Jan 2026 led by SoftBank, Coatue at $14B+ valuation). Key investors include ["SoftBank Group","NVIDIA (NVentures)","Jeff Bezos (Bezos Expeditions)","Lightspeed Venture Partners","Sequoia Capital","Coatue"].

Founded: 2023
Headquarters: Pittsburgh, USA
Team size: 51-200
Total funding: ~$1.7B total (all rounds)

Value proposition

Provides a hardware-agnostic AI 'brain' that allows robots to perform complex tasks in unstructured environments without task-specific programming, significantly reducing deployment costs and time.

Products and solutions

["Skild Brain (Core Foundation Model for robotics)","Skild Data Engine (Proprietary large-scale robot experience dataset)","Hardware-Agnostic Control Suite (API for cross-platform deployment)","Adaptive Task Learning Modules"]

Unique value

Unlike competitors focusing on specific hardware (e.g., humanoids), Skild focuses on a universal intelligence layer that can be deployed across any form factor, from robotic arms to quadrupeds.

Target customer

Robotics OEMs, industrial automation providers, logistics and warehouse operators, and manufacturers seeking flexible automation.

Industries served

["Logistics and Warehousing","Manufacturing","Healthcare (Service Robotics)","Construction","Consumer/Household Robotics"]

Technology advantage

Leverages 'Physical AI' trained on a proprietary dataset that is orders of magnitude larger than industry standards, utilizing self-supervised learning techniques to generalize across diverse physical tasks.

How they differentiate

Unlike competitors focusing on specific humanoid hardware, Skild AI develops a hardware-agnostic 'Skild Brain.' This foundation model is trained on a proprietary data engine orders of magnitude larger than industry standards, allowing it to be deployed across diverse form factors including quadrupeds, robotic arms, and bipeds.

Main competitors

["Figure AI","Physical Intelligence (π)","Sanctuary AI"]

Key partnerships

["NVIDIA (Strategic investor and compute infrastructure partner)","Carnegie Mellon University (Research and talent pipeline)","Bezos Expeditions (Strategic investment and logistics insights)","SoftBank Group (Global scaling and distribution partner)"]

Notable customers

["Robotics OEMs","Logistics and Warehouse Operators","Industrial Manufacturing Providers"]

Major milestones

["Emerged from stealth with a $300M Series A in July 2024","Successfully developed the 'Skild Brain' universal foundation model","Closed a $1.4B Series C round led by SoftBank in January 2026","Achieved Decacorn status with a $14B valuation"]

Growth metrics

Achieved a $14B valuation in January 2026, representing a nearly 10x increase from its $1.5B valuation in July 2024; workforce scaled to 51-200 employees.

Market positioning

Leading provider of general-purpose 'Physical AI' foundation models, positioned as the universal intelligence layer for the global robotics industry.

Geographic focus

North America (Headquartered in Pittsburgh), with a global expansion focus in Asia and Europe through strategic partnerships with SoftBank Group.

Patents and IP

Founders hold extensive intellectual property through Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) related to 'Curiosity-driven learning' and 'Self-supervised robot learning' (e.g., US Patent 11,235,463).

About Deepak Pathak

Dr. Deepak Pathak is the Co-founder and CEO of Skild AI and an Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon University's Robotics Institute. He is a renowned researcher in the field of 'Physical AI' and robot learning. His professional background includes serving as a Research Scientist at Meta AI (FAIR) and a researcher at OpenAI. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where he was advised by Trevor Darrell and Alexei Efros, and a BTech from IIT Kanpur. His work focuses on developing general-purpose AI 'brains' that allow robots to adapt to diverse environments and tasks without task-specific programming.

Official website: https://www.skild.ai/