Jiten Behl, a partner in the investment fund Eclipse Ventures and former director of growth at Rivian, believes that the United States is entering an era of great reindustrialization. But this is not a return to the past. It’s about a future where factories are run by robots powered by artificial intelligence, not cheap foreign labor.
Behl, who helped scale Rivian from a conference room idea in 2015 to a publicly listed electric vehicle maker, is now investing in the next wave of industrial and mobility startups. Among them are two Rivian spinoffs, Also and Mind Robotics.
The future of production and autonomy
In a recent appearance on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Behl discussed key trends shaping the industry with reporter Kirsten Korosec. He explained why Rivian continues to spin out new companies from its ranks, what the specific needs of founders in the “physical world” are compared to those in the software sector, and why automation is becoming a necessity if the US is to compete without dependence on Chinese supply chains.
Behl looks for founders who are both “hyper-optimistic” and also firmly grounded in reality, noting that this combination is surprisingly rare, even in Silicon Valley. He also emphasized that vertical integration, a model in which the company controls all stages of production, worked for Rivian, but would not be a viable path for most new startups today. One of his most interesting predictions is that autonomy will become “real and something we can touch and feel” within the next five years.
This vision implies a profound transformation, where traditional industries such as automotive become leaders in robotics and artificial intelligence. If Behl is right, the future of manufacturing will depend not on the location of cheap labor, but on innovations in automation that will define a new generation of industrial giants.