Walden Robotics

Walden Robotics is a Cambridge, Massachusetts and San Francisco physical-AI company spun out of Toyota Research Institute in January 2026, building general-purpose wheeled humanoid robots that continuously learn on the factory floor for manufacturing and logistics tasks such as machine tending, tool setting, parts kitting and assembly. Co-founded by CEO Dr. Russ Tedrake (MIT professor; former TRI SVP of large behavior models) with robotics and AI talent from Stanford and Amazon, Walden combines large behavior models, imitation learning, simulation and teleoperation, and said its robots moved from first pilot to production tasks at a Toyota North America plant in under two months. In July 2026 Walden emerged from stealth with $300 million in funding at a $1.1 billion valuation led by Toyota Motor Corp., Toyota Invention Partners and Toyota Ventures with Deviation Capital, and participation from NVIDIA, Boeing, AE Ventures, Samsung Ventures, Prologis Ventures, CoreWeave Ventures and others including Calibrate, Colle, Shine, NextView, Squarepoint, One Madison, KAS and Menlo Ventures. Sources: The Robot Report 15 Jul 2026; Bloomberg; AOL/company.