Mind Robotics x Rivian

American industrial robotics and physical-AI startup spun out of Rivian in November 2025 (internal code name 'Project Synapse'), headquartered in Palo Alto, California. Founded and chaired by Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe; Rivian is a shareholder and operating partner, with Mind Robotics using Rivian's high-volume factory floors as a live training and deployment environment. Builds AI foundation models, purpose-built industrial robots, and the fleet software needed to run them in production. Focuses explicitly on industrial automation rather than humanoid form factors, framing the moat as continuous real-world manipulation data from Rivian's plants. As of May 2026 has raised approximately $1 billion across three rounds (Nov 2025 seed ~$115M led by Eclipse; March 2026 Series A $500M co-led by Accel and [Andreessen horowitz](/companies/andreessen-horowitz); May 2026 $400M led by Kleiner Perkins with participation from Volkswagen and Salesforce venture arms), reaching a $3.4 billion valuation. Scaringe has stated publicly that Mind Robotics expects to have a substantial number of robots deployed by the end of 2026; specific named-site deployments have not been publicly confirmed and are not part of this verified record.

American electric vehicle maker ([Nasdaq](/companies/nasdaq): RIVN) founded in 2009 by RJ Scaringe, headquartered in Irvine, California. Builds the R1T pickup, R1S SUV, and EDV commercial van. Ships Universal Hands-Free assisted driving on second-generation R1 vehicles across roughly 3.5 million miles of North American roadways, with an Autonomy+ subscription launching early 2026 at $2,500 one-time or $49.99 per month. Developing the in-house Rivian Autonomy Processor (RAP1), a custom 5nm multi-chip module, and the Gen 3 Autonomy Computer (ACM3) to support its Large Driving Model (LDM) and L4 autonomy roadmap. In March 2026 announced a partnership with Uber under which Uber will invest up to $1.25 billion in Rivian through 2031, contingent on autonomy milestones, with an initial $300 million committed. Uber or its fleet partners are expected to purchase 10,000 fully autonomous Rivian R2 robotaxis with an option for up to 40,000 more starting in 2030. Initial commercial deployments are planned for San Francisco and Miami in 2028, scaling to 25 cities across the US, Canada, and Europe by 2031.