Self-driving digging machines now work real job sites and just raised $600M

A two-year-old startup that makes self-driving excavators just raised $600 million, and its machines are already digging on real construction sites. Bedrock Robotics is now valued at $4.1 billion. An excavator is the big machine with an arm and bucket that digs and moves dirt.

What changed

The money came in a Series C round, a later-stage investment round, co-led by CapitalG and Emergence Capital. It arrived two months after Bedrock moved past testing and pilot programs and put its machines to work on active sites. The company has raised nearly $1 billion since it was founded in 2024.

Bedrock sells a self-driving kit that can be added to existing construction and other worksite vehicles. Contractors do not have to buy all-new machines.

Where the machines work

• A water treatment facility in Nevada
• An earthwork site run by Champion Site Prep in Texas
• A 1.2 million-cubic-yard civil sitework project with Zachry Construction Corporation

The newest partner is Haydon, an Arizona general contractor. It plans to use Bedrock-equipped machines on projects such as advanced manufacturing facilities, water and wastewater plants, data centers and healthcare facilities.

Why construction wants this

Skilled operators are hard to find. Bedrock says it takes five years or more to master an excavator. Meanwhile, the Associated Builders and Contractors, a national industry trade group, estimates that more than 40% of construction workers will retire in the next five years.

Bedrock is betting that contractors will turn to autonomous driving technology to close that gap. CEO Boris Sofman said the company has shown that fully autonomous excavators can do real work alongside the crews and workflows already on job sites.

Who is behind it

Sofman previously led Waymo's self-driving trucks program, which has since shut down. He also co-founded Anki Robotics, maker of the Cozmo consumer robot, which closed in 2019. Several other co-founders also come from Waymo. Bedrock also hired Amy Jones Satrom as vice president of operations and Lando Juarez as general counsel.

What is not known yet

The material does not say what the kit costs, how many machines are running today, or how fast they dig compared with a human operator. It also does not say how many contractors will adopt the technology. Bedrock says the new money will go toward more job sites and bigger teams to support customers in the field.