RJ Scaringe has raised $12 billion across three startups, and investors are still queueing up

This article was published on May 16, 2026 Rivian’s founder is running three companies with $12.3B raised. Mind Robotics just hit $1B at a $3.4B valuation. RJ Scaringe has raised more than $12.3 billion across three startups, and the pace is accelerating. The Rivian founder and CEO, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineering from MIT, is now simultaneously running an electric vehicle manufacturer, an autonomous micromobility company, and an industrial AI robotics startup, each attracting capital at a speed that would be remarkable for any single venture. The latest data point arrived this week when Mind Robotics, Scaringe’s industrial robotics company, closed a $400 million round led by Kleiner Perkins, bringing its total funding to more than $1 billion and its valuation to $3.4 billion. The venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce also participated. Mind Robotics was founded in 2025, initially as an internal Rivian project called “Project Synapse,” and has raised $115 million in seed funding, $500 million in a Series A in March, and now $400 million more in under two months. The company is building AI-powered robots designed to handle the dexterous, reasoning-intensive manuf