The AI robotics company Generalist has raised $400 million in a new funding round to accelerate its development of “physical AI,” a category focused on building foundation models capable of operating in the real world through robotics and embodied intelligence systems.
The round brings the company’s total funding to more than $500 million and was led by Radical Ventures, with participation from major investors including 8VC, Union Square Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners, and others. Strategic backers also include NVIDIA and Spark Capital, alongside notable angel investors such as Fei-Fei Li and Naval Ravikant.
Generalist is building foundation models designed for robotics systems that can perceive, reason, and act in physical environments. Unlike traditional AI systems that primarily process text or images, the company’s focus is on “physical AGI,” where intelligent machines can perform tasks in real-world settings such as manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, healthcare, hospitality, and space exploration.
The startup was founded by Pete Florence, Andy Zeng, and Andrew Barry, and is positioning itself as a developer of general-purpose intelligence systems for robots. Its long-term vision is to enable large-scale deployment of robotic systems powered by shared AI models that can generalize across environments and tasks.
The newly raised capital will be used to expand model development, scale physical-world data infrastructure, and strengthen compute and training capacity. The company also plans to deepen partnerships with industries preparing for large-scale robotic automation.
Investor interest in physical AI has been accelerating as advances in simulation, robotics learning, and foundation models converge. Generalist’s funding round reflects broader momentum in the sector as companies race to build the next generation of intelligent machines capable of operating beyond digital environments.
