Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe says autonomous robots will have their ChatGPT moment sooner than we think.
During a panel at the 2026 Inc. 5000 Conference & Gala, the CEO of the electric vehicle company said that rapid advancements in artificial intelligence are accelerating the development of physical AI, referring to technology that allows machines to perceive and interact with the physical world. Scaringe said the rise of powerful foundation models underlying chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic’s Claude is allowing robotics companies to “move a lot faster” to build machines that work.
The result? Robots that could transform businesses and everyday life in ways previously depicted only in Hollywood.
“I think by the end of this decade, early 2030, we’re going to see all these things that have historically been really science fiction,” Scaringe said. “The idea of robotics working in manufacturing plants doing broad-spectrum tasks, the idea of everybody owning a car that can drive them to the airport and drive home, these are things that are going to happen in the next couple of years.”
Scaringe is seeing that progress play out at Mind Robotics, an industrial robotics startup he founded in October 2025. The company has raised more than $1 billion from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Eclipse, Kleiner Perkins, and the venture arms of Volkswagen and Salesforce. Mind Robotics is developing its own foundation models trained on large datasets to power robots designed for manufacturing tasks. That includes sorting parts, fastening components, and connecting electrical wiring. Rivian is its first customer.
While Mind Robotics has yet to publicly unveil its robots, it’s gearing up for growth. On Tuesday, the startup appointed Doug Field, a former executive at Ford, Tesla, and Apple, as its president to lead engineering and operations.
Scaringe’s prediction comes as companies race to develop AI-powered machines that operate in the physical world. Tesla, Figure AI, Agility Robotics, and Boston Dynamics are among the companies developing humanoid robots, or machines built to resemble the human body and perform physical actions.