Founded by ex-Waymo leaders, the San Francisco start-up is bringing proven autonomous driving expertise to construction, retrofitting existing heavy machinery to tackle America’ s deepening infrastructure and workforce crisis.
T he US construction industry has long been defined by its hands-on labour, musclebound machines and tight project timelines. But with a growing shortfall of skilled workers, unprecedented demand for infrastructure and manufacturing facilities and mounting pressure to improve safety, the sector is on the cusp of one of its biggest technological shifts in decades.
Into this landscape steps Bedrock Robotics – a San Francisco-based autonomous technology start-up led by some of the brightest minds from Waymo’ s pioneering self-driving programme. The company emerged from stealth this week with a total of US $ 80 million in Seed and Series A funding from backers including Eclipse, 8VC, Two Sigma Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, NVentures, Crossbeam Venture Partners, Raine Group, Tishman Speyer, Atreides Management, Al Rajhi Partners and Samsara Ventures – signalling investor confidence that construction’ s longawaited automation revolution is finally here.
A crisis in the making
S COVER T TO TION
America is building again – and fast. The reindustrialisation push has ignited a wave of factory construction, data centre developments and housing projects. In 2024, investment in US manufacturing facilities hit a record US $ 238 billion, with vast projects breaking ground from Texas to Arizona. But the workforce is straining under the load. The Associated Builders and Contractors estimate a shortage of 500,000
When a technology proves its value in the field, this industry will pick it up fast.
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