Milestones
- Skild Brain unveiledJul 2025Complete.
- Commercial deployments with robot makersNowCurrent milestone.
Most important updates
- 30d ago
- 18 Aug 2026
- 15 Apr 2026
- 19 Mar 2026
- Jul 2025
Current obstacles
- One model, many bodiesRobots differ in joints, sensors and weight, so one shared model often does worse than one built for a single robot.
Physics limits
- Every body has different physicsMass, reach, joint limits and motor strength differ between robots. A shared model must infer them from a few moments of motion; if it guesses wrong, it pushes too hard or falls.
- Video shows motion, not forceHuman videos reveal where hands go but not how hard they grip or push. Force must still be learned from robot experience, which is slow and costly to collect.
- Errors compound over long tasksA 20-step job at 95% success per step finishes only about 36% of the time. Long tasks need near-perfect steps or reliable recovery.
How it works
Many bodies
Trained across robot shapes
The model practises in simulation on many different robot bodies, so its skills do not depend on one robot's size, legs or arms.
Human video
Learning by watching people
Besides robot data, it learns from videos of humans doing tasks, a far larger source than teleoperated robot recordings.
S1
One demo, new task
Skild's S1 model (Aug 2026) watches a single video demonstration of a new task and performs it without retraining.
Update log
Thu 10 Sep
- Major: BlogCommercial
Tue 18 Aug
- Major: BlogSoftware
Wed 15 Apr
- Major: BlogCommercial
Thu 19 Mar
- Major: BlogPartnership
Mon 12 Jan
- Minor: BlogResearch
Wed 24 Sep 2025
- Minor: BlogResearch
Jul 2025
- Major: BlogSoftware
About Skild AI
Skild AI
Skild Brain, one AI for many robots
Skild AI, founded in Pittsburgh in 2023 by Carnegie Mellon professors Deepak Pathak and Abhinav Gupta, builds the Skild Brain, one AI meant to control many robot types. A SoftBank-led $1.4B round in January 2026 valued it above $14B.
- Valuation went from $1.5B (2024) to $4.5B (2025) to over $14B (Jan 2026).
- Pitches one 'brain' for robot dogs, humanoids and arms, trained largely in simulation and on human video.
- SoftBank leads its funding and, through ABB Robotics, could help it reach factories.
- Founded
- 20233 yrs
- Headquarters
- United States
- Status
- Private
- Valuation
- $14BprivateJan 2026
- Raised
- $1.7B2 rounds
- Last round
- Series C · $1.4B14 Jan 2026$14B post
- Coverage
- 1 program · 8 updateslatest 30d agochecked 25 Sep
- Lead investors
- SoftBankLightspeedCoatueBezos Expeditions
- People
- Deepak Pathak (opens cs.cmu.edu)Co-founder & CEOAbhinav Gupta (opens cs.cmu.edu)Co-founder