Russ Tedrake Co-founded Walden Robotics Secures $300M to Build AI-Powered Robots

The round also saw participation from NVIDIA, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures, and financial partners Calibrate Ventures, Colle Capital, Shine Capital, NextView Ventures, Squarepoint Capital, One Madison Group, KAS Venture Partners, and Menlo Ventures, among others.

The company will use the new funding to expand its operations and further develop its products.

Read More:Healthtech Startup TytoCare Lands $25M+ to Expand Remote Care Platform

Walden develops robots that work alongside people in real manufacturing and logistics environments. Its robots handle useful tasks from day one, helping businesses improve productivity without replacing human workers.

The platform allows skilled employees to hand over repetitive and difficult-to-automate tasks to robots. This gives workers more time to focus on problem-solving, decision-making, and the specialized work that adds the most value. The company's name reflects its mission to use robotics to expand human potential and help people work with greater purpose.

Walden's robots are used across industries, including automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, electronics, logistics and life sciences. The company is helping businesses address labor shortages, changing workforce demographics, growing competition and rising demand.

Walden's technology is built on more than 10 years of AI and robotics research by its team. It uses advanced technologies such as Diffusion Policy and Large Behavior Models (LBMs), which help its robots quickly learn new tasks and improve their performance through real-world experience.

The company launched from the Toyota Research Institute in January 2026 and immediately started working with customers across multiple industries. Since February, Walden's general-purpose robots have been operating in a Toyota manufacturing plant in North America, moving from an initial pilot to real production work in less than two months.

“Core advances in Physical AI, and all of the excitement and attention surrounding it, have made disruptive change possible,” said Dr. Russ Tedrake, co-founder and CEO of Walden, a professor at MIT, and former Senior Vice President of Large Behavior Models at Toyota Research Institute. “But providing real value to customers and building a robust and scalable business requires a deep understanding and respect for how manufacturing is done today.

“Advances in AI are making a new generation of adaptable robots possible and Walden sits right at the center of that shift. The Walden team is generational, bringing together a rare, interdisciplinary group of experts spanning foundational robotics research, large scale production hardware, and operational and business leadership.

About Walden Robotics

Founded in 2026 by Russ Tedrake, Walden develops AI-powered robots that help businesses automate industrial work. The company combines Large Behavior Models (LBMs), real world operations, and its own robotics expertise to build robots that can learn new tasks and improve over time. Walden is a full-stack physical AI company that builds, and deploys general-purpose robots for industrial environments. Its goal is to use AI and robotics to expand human potential, improve productivity and make work better for people.

Read More:Cyclops Lands $20M to Expand Stablecoin Payments Platform