Analysis Caterpillar's Physical-AI Deal Is About Watching, Not Driving Caterpillar is putting FieldAI's robot foundation models to work on inspections, digital twins and situational awareness. No terms, no timeline, no machine named — and read the list of applications carefully, because not one of them operates a machine. Hugo Pegley · Sep 11, 2026
Product Bedrock Says Its Excavators Now Work Alone. Three Contractors Put Their Names On It. Sundt, Zachry and Champion Site Prep are named on live projects where Bedrock's retrofitted excavators run without an operator. The named customers are the news — and a separate survey claiming contractor robotics use jumped from 29% to 79% in a year is the number to be careful with. Hugo Pegley · Aug 24, 2026
Funding SoftBank Just Wrote a $200M Series A Into a Company That Bolts Brains Onto Excavators You Already Own Gravis Robotics raised the largest Series A construction robotics has seen, from a single investor, at a reported $1 billion valuation — nine months after a $23 million round. The retrofit thesis just got the most expensive endorsement it has ever received. Hugo Pegley · Aug 24, 2026
Funding TerraFirma raises $115M to run construction equipment from a screen Two former SpaceX engineers landed a $100M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins for a vertically integrated construction company that retrofits excavators and dozers to be operated remotely from a command center. Hugo Pegley · Jul 15, 2026
Funding Bedrock Robotics raises $270M to bring autonomy to the job site The Series B values the autonomous-equipment startup at $1.75 billion and draws in NVIDIA's venture arm, CapitalG and Tishman Speyer as it pushes self-driving excavators and dozers onto active sites. Hugo Pegley · Jun 12, 2026
