AIM, an embodied AI platform for earthmoving machinery, announced it has raised $50 million to transform the global construction and mining industries. And AIM’s investors include Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, Human Capital, Ironspring Ventures, Mantis, and DCVC, among other great allies.
Although mass earthmoving is essential for civilization to flourish, it has long relied on human operators working in some of the most challenging environments. And high-risk conditions also impact productivity, given both historical and acute labor shortages across the ecosystem.
In the past century, not much has changed in how the industry moves large amounts of earth, from mining critical minerals, preparing ground for agricultural use, digging foundations for new structures, managing waste, or building and repairing infrastructure like roads, runways, underground utilities, transit lines, dams, and levees.
AIM’s customers run their heavy machinery operations with maximum safety and at peak performance — unlocking value across fleet availability, fuel savings, optimal site planning, and execution. The plug-and-play technology retrofits heavy equipment, such as bulldozers and excavators, in the field today, regardless of make, model, size, or age.
Embodied AI turbocharges robotics, enabling it to modify the physical world in powerful ways. And the scaled deployment of this capability builds superior physical infrastructure safely, economically, and rapidly. This infrastructure, which includes material supply chains, utilities, and data centers, then fuels further technological advancements, creating a positive feedback loop.
Even though AIM’s technology is already transforming job sites across the globe, the company’s autonomy platform is poised to deploy an undo button for some of the most significant problems posed by our rapidly changing planet. And terraforming—planetary engineering that reshapes otherwise uninhabitable land—has long been out of reach given the capital, resources, and time required to optimize the physical world.
Through AIM’s autonomous platform, scalable terraforming finally becomes possible. AI-based earthmoving has a wide range of applications, from protecting swaths of land threatened by floods to preventing wildfires to restoring ecosystems previously damaged by natural disasters or hazardous waste. Within the next decade, AIM plans to bring its technology to terraform planets beyond Earth.
KEY QUOTES:
“Everything is either mined or grown, and efficient earthmoving is required for both. Since the introduction of hydraulic machines like excavators in the 1800s, mining and construction have seen little of the automation that’s transformed other industries. These are still among the most dangerous jobs in the world, and outcomes aren’t getting better fast enough. AIM is changing that.”
Adam Sadilek, founding CEO of AIM
“Autonomous machines are an obvious unlock for dangerous industries like mining and construction. We backed AIM because of their strong team, technical approach, and early traction with customers. AI-powered heavy equipment will improve safety and productivity, and open the door to bigger breakthroughs in creating abundance of critical materials and resources throughout the world.”
Sven Strohband of Khosla Ventures
“AIM’s autonomous technology boosts equipment efficiency and maximizes utilization by operating continuously, increasing production rates and eliminating variability caused by manual operations. Leveraging AI, it achieves top operator expertise, raising productivity and reducing performance fluctuations. Mining companies can now enhance safety and efficiency in hazardous environments, achieving greater profitability with automation while maintaining a risk-averse strategy.”
Pat Pohlman who has 40 years of mining experience and is a former Director of Continuous Improvement at Peabody Energy
“With material and labor costs climbing, we’re always looking for ways to improve how we operate. Our best operators can extend the life of expensive machine components by 50% just through skill and technique. That’s the kind of performance we want across our entire team.”
*“Wayne Brothers ***is exploring automation not to replace our operators, but to help every operator perform like our most experienced pros. We want to maximize what we can accomplish with the machines we have, extend their working life, and make sure we’re getting the most out of every day we can actually get work done. It’s about elevating everyone’s game and driving productivity when it matters most.”
Jim Rhodes, SVP at Wayne Brothers
“At MTI, we place the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else. Our work with AIM has helped protect employees who work in complex environments on a daily basis, and we continue to see significant benefits both in terms of site productivity and safety. Autonomous technologies are at the forefront of advancing mining operations, and we are proud to partner with AIM on the next wave of cutting-edge innovation.”
Douglas T. Dietrich, Chairman and CEO of MTI
