Generalist, the robotics startup founded by two former Google DeepMind researchers, is now valued at $3B after collecting nearly $200M in fresh capital led by 8VC, according to people familiar with the funding.
A regulatory filing shows the raise, which extends a $400M Series B led by Radical Ventures that the company announced in June at a $2B valuation. The extension brings the round’s total to $600M.
The company came together in 2024: Pete Florence and Andy Zeng, who cut their teeth at Google DeepMind, plus Andrew Barry from Boston Dynamics. Its investor roster runs deep, with 8VC, Radical Ventures, Nvidia, Union Square Ventures, Bezos Expeditions and AI researcher Fei-Fei Li all in from early on.
The startup has stayed quiet until recently, but its pitch is ambitious: an AI foundation model that can drive many different kinds of robots rather than one trained per machine. That approach has captured investor imagination as humanoid and general-purpose robots chase cheaper, more adaptable brains.
Neither Generalist nor 8VC commented on the new valuation, but the round signals continued appetite for robot foundation models even as other corners of AI funding cool. Whether the model can match the hype when deployed on real hardware is the open question.
