HIVE brings in $15M to build physical AI for industrial machines

A London-based startup has raised funding to develop what it calls a "silicon brain," technology that retrofits existing industrial machines with sensors and cameras to enable them to operate autonomously. The company retrofits vehicles used in warehouses, production lines, and construction sites so they can perceive, decide, and act independently, with operators able to supervise remotely rather than work inside vulnerable positions. The investment matters because the startup claims its system learns across its entire fleet of deployed machines, with the expectation that this shared learning loop will reduce the cost per productive machine hour by 80 percent over time. The company has already deployed this technology at sites in Scandinavia, including on a mountain pass in Norway where it remotely operates wheel loaders for avalanche clearing.