CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Jul 15, 2026—
Walden Robotics, a full-stack Physical AI company building and deploying general-purpose robots that continuously learn and improve while performing real work, launched out of stealth with 1.1 billion, is co-led by Toyota (Toyota Motor Corp, Toyota Invention Partners, and Toyota Ventures) and Deviation Capital, with 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.
Walden deploys robots into real production environments in manufacturing and logistics, doing useful work side-by-side with people from day one. Walden enables skilled team members to delegate difficult-to-automate tasks, so they can focus on the problem-solving, judgment, and dedication to craft that make their work more gratifying and impactful. The company’s name reflects the deep-seated principle that this transformative technology should be used to expand human potential and enable everyone to work, craft, and live with greater purpose. Walden’s robots are useful across industries, with strategic partners in automotive, aerospace, semiconductors, electronics, logistics, and life sciences. The company is meeting fast-growing needs from industries facing labor shortages, demographic shifts, competitive pressure, and increased demand.
Walden’s product builds on a decade of foundational AI and robotics research the Walden team helped pioneer, including Diffusion Policy and Large Behavior Models (LBMs), the frontier model class that powers Walden’s robots and lets them quickly learn new tasks and continuously improve through real-world practice. Walden launched out of Toyota Research Institute in January 2026 and began working with customers across multiple industries immediately. Since February, Walden’s general-purpose robots have been doing useful work in production at a Toyota plant in North America, moving from first pilot to real work in under two months.
“Core advances in Physical AI, and all of the excitement and attention surrounding it, has 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. The best way to make fast and positive progress is by working closely together with the real experts.”
“Toyota is proud to support Walden and has high expectations for this investment and the deep strategic partnership we are building together. Walden’s uniqueness is its ability to deliver robots that provide value from day one in real-world work environments: Robots that continuously improve through learning, while always keeping people at the center.” — Hiroki Nakajima, Executive Vice President and CTO, Toyota Motor Corporation
“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.” — Colin Beirne, Founding Partner of Deviation Capital
About Walden Robotics
Walden Robotics is a full-stack Physical AI company building and deploying general-purpose robots that put human ingenuity to work at industrial scale. Founded in 2026 by pioneers in robotics and AI from Toyota Research Institute, MIT, Stanford, and Amazon, Walden combines Large Behavior Models with real-world operation and its own expert teams to bring capable robots to industry today. Learn more at waldenrobotics.com.