Path Robotics raises $300 million for robotic welding, Nominal raises $240 million, and more - Industrial AI Weekly #81

In this edition, covering 5 to 11 November:

• Path Robotics raised $300 million in a Series E at a $2.45 billion valuation to expand robotic welding.
• Nominal raised $240 million in a Series C, tripling its valuation to $3 billion, for AI software that analyzes hardware test data.
• Google DeepMind introduced Gemini Robotics 2.5; Apptronik's Apollo 2 sorted automotive parts at Mercedes Benz sites with a 96% success rate.

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A new AI Brief list covers AI predictive maintenance tools for industry.

AI predictive maintenance tools for industry

Funding

Path Robotics, based in Columbus, Ohio, raised $300 million in a Series E led by Georgian at a $2.45 billion valuation, to expand robotic welding and bring its physical AI to more manufacturing tasks. The company says its annual recurring revenue grew 17 fold over 18 months; its total funding is now above $610 million. Nominal raised $240 million in a Series C led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Insight Partners, tripling its valuation to $3 billion. Its software combines hardware test data for aircraft, rocket engines, autonomous vehicles, drones and energy systems. Path Robotics · Nominal

Humble Robotics raised $51 million led by Obvious Ventures to build cabless self driving trucks, bringing its total to $75 million; it plans customer pilots in the first quarter of 2027 on regional US freight routes. Munich based SPARETECH raised a $20 million Series B co-led by Blume Equity and Insight Partners for AI that helps manufacturers cut spare parts inventory, with a target of 60% less inventory within three years. UK urban logistics company PORT raised €14.5 million in equity and debt from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Balnord and others for its AI Driver and autonomous delivery vehicles, and will develop a robotic delivery system with Royal Mail. Humble Robotics · SPARETECH · PORT

Construction robotics companies raised about $1.6 billion in 2026 through 29 October, more than three times the previous peak, according to Crunchbase. Bedrock Robotics accounted for $870 million across two rounds. Zacua Ventures raised $135 million for its second fund, which invests in AI, robotics and other technologies for construction, manufacturing, energy, mining and critical infrastructure; the fund is more than twice the size of its first and 35% above target. Construction robotics funding · Zacua Ventures

Robots in factories and oilfields

Unitree Robotics is forming a joint venture with Kunlun Manufacturing, an energy equipment unit of China National Petroleum Corporation, and Beijing Fanjie Intelligent Technology to build inspection and emergency response robots for oil and gas, refining, storage and energy stations. Kunlun will hold 60 percent, Unitree and Fanjie 20 percent each. Unitree

Google DeepMind introduced Gemini Robotics 2.5, a vision language action model tested on more than 200 tasks, with 30% to 100% higher task success and 20% to 30% faster completion than earlier models, the company says. Apptronik's Apollo 2 reached a 96% success rate sorting automotive parts at Mercedes Benz plants in Hungary and Germany. EPFL spin-off Embodied AI presented AIR, a wheeled dual arm humanoid that learns tasks from teleoperation, and reports a 95% task success rate in paid industrial pilots. Gemini Robotics 2.5 · Embodied AI

ABB Robotics is supplying more than 1,700 robots for BMW Group's Neue Klasse electric vehicle production at plants in Munich and Tiexi, China, for welding, gluing, riveting and assembly in the body shop. HANGCHA unveiled five LINGTRA AI forklift robots powered by its LogiMind industrial AI model at its Global Dealers Conference in Hangzhou, and plans to invest more than RMB 2 billion in a smart factory expected to begin operating in 2030. ABB and BMW · HANGCHA

The US Pentagon gave Los Angeles based Machina Labs a $9 million contract for an 18 month trial of building metal airframes for LUCAS attack drones with AI powered robotic arms in modular factories. Ati Robotics says the US Department of War conditionally approved five of its platforms, including the Sherpa Mecha humanoid and Sherpa FlexFork autonomous forklifts, exempting them from the FCC Covered List. Machina Labs · Ati Robotics

NVIDIA and Korean industry

At NVIDIA AI Day Seoul, NVIDIA robotics chief Deepu Talla presented production line simulation with Hyundai, door polishing robots with Doosan and digital twins with SK hynix. Samsung and NVIDIA showed a machine learning workflow that cut a thermal and mechanical chip simulation from about 18 hours on a 32 core CPU to 41 seconds on one Hopper GPU, with 99.17% accuracy. NVIDIA in Seoul · Samsung

SeAH Besteel built an AI safety system with Everguard from about 6 million steel plant situations over four years. It links to equipment controls, predicts crane paths and can stop machinery when it detects serious hazards; SeAH Besteel plans to use it in 250 process zones at its Gunsan and Changnyeong plants by the first half of 2027. SeAH Besteel

Maintenance and service

Shanghai Electric says its SIMPLE operation and maintenance platform uses data from more than 60 gas turbine units and over 1 million operating hours for monitoring and fault warnings, and that its blade production uses AI vision, digital twins and robotics. Resideo launched Pro-IQ Predict, which uses Honeywell Home thermostat data to flag more than 80 possible HVAC problems before breakdowns and alerts contractors. Shanghai Electric · Resideo

Bobcat says about 600 dealer technicians use its AI Service Assistant each day; in its first 60 days, use of traditional troubleshooting guides fell about 40% and cases sent for extra support fell more than 25%. In XCMG's AI and construction machinery competition, Austria's VA Erzberg won first prize for an electric mining truck project, and teams from Uzbekistan, Indonesia and Germany won awards for predictive maintenance, earthwork monitoring and autonomous mining. Bobcat · XCMG

Engineering and design

Rescale introduced customizable AI agents, reusable workflows and persistent memory for engineering and R&D teams; Kairos Power and Oak Ridge National Laboratory use its workflows for advanced reactor design, with engineers reviewing each agent action. Revalize's PIPE-FLO launched Connect, a browser platform that turns P&IDs and PDF schematics into starting fluid system models that engineers can change in plain language. Rescale · PIPE-FLO

Japan's Kuken Industries built an app with Recursive on the OpenAI API to search its 70 year drawing archive by part number, screenshot or PDF, and expects drawing search time to fall about 90%. StandardFlow released a platform that checks engineering documents against technical standards, starting with additive manufacturing for aerospace and defence. Y Combinator backed HyperBench, founded by former OpenAI and Anduril engineers, launched a platform that links software repositories, hardware components, interfaces and test evidence in one system graph; the company says its agents can trace failures, delegate fixes and test changes on real hardware. Kuken Industries · StandardFlow · HyperBench

Trimble added AI to its Trimble Connect construction platform, including Trimble Assist, customer built agents in Agent Studio, automated structural modelling and invoice matching, and launched Trimble Connect Scheduling in North America to flag schedule risks and suggest changes. Trimble Connect · Trimble Scheduling

Plant software

Boston Consulting Group research finds that industrial companies leading in AI grew revenue more than twice as fast as laggards from 2022 to 2025. BCG says only 12% of industrial companies have the data capabilities needed for future AI use. BCG

Octave is acquiring US based Cerebre to combine Cerebre's live plant models, deployed at more than 200 plants, with Octave's engineering records for industrial AI applications. Octave and Cerebre

Harmoni says its HAL factory floor assistant, which answers questions about jobs, parts and machines and can file maintenance requests, is a CES 2027 Innovation Awards honoree. SolidRun launched an NXP i.MX 95 edge portfolio at electronica 2026 with a pipeline to NVIDIA Holoscan. SugarAI introduced tools for manufacturers and distributors that link CRM and ERP data to flag sales risks and opportunities. Harmoni · SolidRun · SugarAI

Supply chain and logistics

A RELEX Solutions survey of 108 supply chain and planning leaders found that 48% rate their technology platforms ahead of their AI governance, and governance ranked lowest for 58%. Blue Yonder launched a cloud order management product whose AI agents flag at risk orders and recommend actions within customer rules. ShipBob made its Bobby agent available to every brand on its fulfillment platform, to spot stockout risks and stuck orders and act after approval. RELEX · Blue Yonder · ShipBob

Cainiao is opening dozens of its warehouse and delivery sites to AI and robotics companies for training, testing and validation. GrubMarket launched an agent that turns invoices, photos and spreadsheets into purchase orders for food distributors. Accrete will add TenderAlpha's government contracting and trade data to its Argus supply chain platform for US agencies in early 2027. Fleetworthy launched RADAR, an AI layer in its toll management platform for fleets. Cainiao · GrubMarket · Accrete · Fleetworthy

TIER IV and Shunan Bulk Terminal will automate dump truck transport between the terminal's storage area and Tokuyama's power generation facilities at Japan's Port of Tokuyama Kudamatsu, with driverless operations planned by the end of 2028. TIER IV

Also

EPG Modular Data Center topped out a US$120 million factory in Johor, Malaysia, for modular data centre shelters and power modules, due for completion in the first quarter of 2027. Macronix received an IEEE Milestone Award for its sNOVA manufacturing optimization system, the first for a Taiwanese semiconductor company. INVE Technologies will deploy Trackonomy's physical AI platform across the software businesses it has acquired. EPG · Macronix · INVE and Trackonomy