Walden Robotics, a Toyota Research Institute spinout, secured a $300 million seed round at a $1.1 billion valuation, backed by Toyota, NVIDIA, Boeing, Samsung Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, and Deviation Capital. The company focuses on deploying general-purpose humanoids for repetitive tasks, with a pilot already underway at a North American Toyota plant where robots work 8-hour shifts alongside human teams.
Significant capital is flowing into humanoid robotics focused on practical deployment, signaling a shift from research to commercialization in physical AI.