The Scoop
Bright Machines, a robotic manufacturing startup with backing from Nvidia, Microsoft and venture firms like Eclipse and Lux Capital, has named a new CEO as the company expands into the rapidly growing AI market, the company told Semafor.
Former Cisco executive and McKinsey veteran Chris Stori will take over the reins from co-founder and interim CEO Lior Susan.
“Stori’s extensive experience propelling companies like Meraki from millions to billions of dollars in revenue is a testament to his ability to lead and scale a complex organization,” Susan said in a statement to Semafor.
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Bright Machines was founded in 2018 by a group of executives from AutoCAD maker Autodesk and Flex, a contract manufacturing giant. The aim was to use the combination of AI and robotics to create a multi-purpose, automated manufacturing system that it dubbed “micro-factories.”
They wanted to make robots easier to reprogram and more flexible compared to traditional robots used in manufacturing, which are expensive and time-consuming to set up and then can only be used for one purpose.
The company was originally set up to assemble and inspect electronic devices. But its robots have been successful making data center equipment used in the rapidly expanding AI market, the company said. “The expertise of the staff across multiple domains puts Bright Machines at the forefront of the AI and manufacturing space,” Stori said in a statement.
In June, it announced a $126 million series C investment round that included Nvidia and Microsoft. The fundraise “highlights the intense pressure that large cloud compute providers are facing to scale AI infrastructure,” the company said at the time.
In Stori, the company says it’s bringing on a CEO that has experience in enterprise networking and manufacturing.
Stori was general manager for Cisco’s Enterprise Networking, Meraki, and IoT division. At McKinsey, he advised US manufacturing and industrial companies on expanding into international markets, according to Bright Machines.
Bright Machines’ micro factories look like a string of futuristic phone booths. Inside, robotic arms, cameras and other instruments and tools work together to assemble server boards and other electronics.