Humanoid industrial robotic are on show on the humanoid robotic knowledge coaching middle in Shougang Park on March 27, 2025 in Beijing, China.
VCG | China Information Service | Getty Photos
PARK CITY, Utah — Rivian Automotive CEO RJ Scaringe envisions a day within the not-so-distant future when the electrical automobile maker’s manufacturing staff can have a brand new kind of colleague: humanoid robots.
“There’s going to be 1000’s of individuals which might be collaborating alongside these robots. They’ll be taking footage, ‘Hey, examine this out! My co-worker’s identify is Phil, and he is a robotic,'” Scaringe mentioned throughout a media occasion for the launch of the Rivian R2 EV.
The 43-year-old automotive fanatic and tech entrepreneur began a robotics firm final yr known as Thoughts Robotics. The corporate has raised greater than $1 billion, in response to Scaringe.
Humanoid robots are designed to be formed and transfer like folks. Synthetic intelligence algorithms energy their skills together with complicated {hardware} like semiconductors. Proponents say they may very well be utilized in numerous settings, from factories to hospitality and even within the house, whereas others have raised considerations in regards to the gadgets changing human jobs.
Scaringe mentioned the corporate expects to disclose its first product in lower than a yr, with Rivian as a big minority shareholder and launch buyer. Thoughts presently has roughly 20 open positions starting from software program and {hardware} engineers to knowledge architects, in response to its web site.
Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe, who based Thoughts Robotics late final yr, speaks with media on June 3, 2026 throughout a launch occasion for the R2 electrical SUV in Utah.
Michael Wayland / CNBC
Scaringe, who’s govt chair and performing CEO of Thoughts, informed CNBC that the plan is to maintain the robotics firm separate from Rivian, versus the automaker partially shifting to make humanoid robots, like Tesla CEO Elon Musk is doing along with his firm.
“We now have a deep relationship, and that was really how we structured it,” Scaringe mentioned throughout an interview. “An enormous a part of structuring the enterprise was to permit me to have the ability to spend time on each.”
The robotics technique provides to a story of Scaringe doing issues otherwise than Musk, regardless of apparent similarities of their corporations. There have been sufficient comparisons that Rivian has even been known as the “anti-Tesla” and Scaringe has been known as the “anti-Elon.”
“I might say there’s a whole lot of alignment there, and I feel that is as a result of, clearly, I am biased, however I feel they’re proper … that autonomy is an excellent essential know-how,” Scaringe mentioned about Tesla and Rivian. “However when it comes to the merchandise, they, in some ways, could not be extra totally different.”
To this point Rivian and Thoughts are aiding one another, although, very like Musk’s corporations have additionally executed throughout developmental phases. That features Musk’s xAI firm merging with SpaceX earlier than the corporate’s record-setting preliminary public providing on Friday in addition to SpaceX buying automobiles from Tesla.
Scaringe mentioned Rivian might be a “big beneficiary” of Thoughts, which is utilizing knowledge from Rivian for coaching its AI fashions. Together with Rivian’s fairness stake, the automaker might be Thoughts’s first buyer for the robots.
“We realized it was such an enormous alternative that deserved to be its personal firm,” mentioned Scaringe. He mentioned he believes there’s a multitrillion-dollar whole addressable marketplace for industrial labor.
A Tesla Optimus robotic palms out sweet in entrance of the Nasdaq MarketSite in New York, US, on Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.
Michael Nagle | Bloomberg | Getty Photos
Scaringe was visibly excited when talking with media in regards to the potential for AI and humanoid robotics, calling it “probably the most thrilling instances, maybe in human historical past.”
“100 years from now, they will be inheriting the work that we do over our lifetimes, and so I simply assume we’re so fortunate that we get to be alive on the start of AI,” Scaringe mentioned.
Regardless of the optimism for humanoid robots, Scaringe mentioned he expects the gadgets to work alongside people reasonably than substitute them utterly for the foreseeable future, saying it takes a “very long time” for automobile meeting crops to change into so-called “darkish factories” which may be virtually fully run by robots.
“What I see occurring is the only duties might be taken on by robots. The extra complicated duties that require larger ranges of reasoning or extra complicated, extra tactile ranges of dexterity [will be done by humans],” he mentioned.
Scaringe mentioned producers are coping with an “excessive lack of labor,” from different automakers. Rivian presently has greater than 30 open manufacturing and engineering jobs, in response to the firm’s web site.
The necessity for such employees, in addition to the speedy growth of AI, Scaringe believes, will imply human staff might be working alongside a robotic named “Phil” far before they could count on.
“The speed at which that is shifting is much quicker than I might say — like an order of magnitude quicker — than the typical individual in society understands,” he mentioned. “That is going to be a very huge problem within the short-term to only have the typical individual … understand how briskly the fashions are studying and the way succesful they’re at doing virtually all the pieces.”
— CNBC’s Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.
