Gravis Robotics raises $200M from SoftBank to retrofit excavators into autonomous machines

Gravis Robotics announced a $200 million Series A led by SoftBank, reported 17 August 2026, which the company calls the largest investment in construction robotics to date. The product is a retrofit rather than a new machine: the Gravis Rack kit plus software turns existing excavators and heavy equipment from Caterpillar, Case, Develon, John Deere, JCB, Hitachi, Sumitomo, Yanmar and Volvo into machines that can run autonomously, with a spectrum from AI-assisted manual control (Copilot) through to full autonomy, and a Slate interface giving real-time guidance and hazard detection. The control policies are trained in simulation for unpredictable jobsite conditions; the company claims up to 30% productivity improvement over manual operation. It says the systems are already operating across four continents and that it leads an $8 million UK government-backed CAM Pathfinder project with Flannery Plant Hire.

What it means The retrofit-onto-fleet-you-already-own pattern keeps winning the money in construction robotics — the productivity claim is the vendor’s, but the deployment model means a contractor can pilot it without a capital purchase.