Planetary-Scale Earthmoving

Everything comes out of the ground. Every road, data center, utility line, and building requires moving molecules of earth before it can exist. Everything from your breakfast today to the device you are reading this on requires a key primitive: molecules of material have to move. AIM automates that first mile.

The scale is staggering: manufacturing just one electric vehicle (like a Tesla Model Y) requires moving 300 tons of earth. Annually, this creates a mountain of displaced material over 2 miles in diameter and 0.5 miles tall. Making a single smartphone that weighs 200g requires moving 75kg of material—amounting to 94 million tons of earth dug up every single year just for mobile devices.

While physical demands grow exponentially, manual earthmoving is stalled by severe labor shortages, operational bottlenecks, and safety risks. AIM solves this civilizational constraint with a hardened physical AI platform, retrofitting existing heavy machinery to move these foundational molecules autonomously, reliably, and safely under the most brutal conditions on Earth.

1. The Global Bottleneck: Labor & Infrastructure Limits

Severe Operator Shortage: America cannot find 349,000 construction workers this year. Directly delays AI data centers, power lines, and critical mineral supply chains.

Not a Funding Issue: Federal infrastructure dollars struggle to deploy because the physical capacity—crews and machine hours—is missing. Autonomous earthmoving converts approved funding into completed projects.

Civilization-Scale Pressures: Massive earthmoving is required to handle compounding global crises: 43% of critical infrastructure is in disrepair ($2.6T fix), food production must spike 60% by 2050, and clearing Ukraine's landmines via old methods takes 757 years.

2. The Technology: Physical AI for Genuinely Hard Environments

TRL9 Production System: Hardened, commercial system running 24/7 globally. Not an experimental lab science project.

Beyond Urban Autonomy: Urban self-driving (like Waymo) solved a structured environment with pre-mapped streets, lanes, signs, and steady GPS.

Unstructured Reality: AIM operates with zero prior infrastructure. Handles active mines, military bases, and construction sites where terrain changes hourly, satellite signals drop, and no road rules exist.

Universal Retrofit: Rugged plug-and-play platform converts existing heavy fleets—bulldozers, excavators, loaders, and shovels—into autonomous machines.

Zero-Entry Safety: Completely removes ground personnel from hazardous work zones to eliminate casualties.

3. Commercial Impact & Real-World Deployments

23% Unit Cost Reduction: Achieved by maximizing fleet utilization, optimizing layouts, cutting fuel use, reducing machine wear, and eliminating manual re-work.

Proven ROI: A 16-machine autonomous mining fleet delivers $16.3M/year in direct OPEX savings and unlocks over $98M in top-line mine output.

Securing Global Supply Chains: Automating a massive phosphate mine in Africa that yields over 70% of the world's phosphates, securing the critical component for agricultural fertilizers.

AI Data Center Growth: Actively leveling hundreds of acres for new US data centers, covering everything from foundation grading to utility trenching.

Dual-Use Defense: Deployed with active military engineering units for high-threat operations including automated mine clearing, rapid base construction, and tactical terraforming across gray zones.

Enterprise Scaling: Massive rollout initiatives including a 700-machine portfolio commitment target with tier-one entities like Bechtel.

Interplanetary Mission: Reshaping unusable land on Earth first to create abundance, with long-term plans to replicate the process to terraform Mars and beyond.

4. Elite Team & Sophisticated Capital

Autonomy DNA: Built by heavy earthworks managers and military operators alongside deep-tech engineers who previously scaled systems at Waymo, SpaceX, Google, Tesla, Apple, and the Navy SEALs.

Pioneering Leadership: Built in part by Adam, who spent a decade at Google pioneering Waymo before applying physical AI to the world's most critical infrastructure bottleneck.

World-Class Backing: Global expansion funded by premier venture firms, including General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, Elad Gil, Human Capital, Ironspring Ventures, Mantis, and DCVC.

5. Industry Validation & Testimonials

We evaluated AIM on one criterion: does it make our sites safer and more productive? The answer on both counts has been yes. Our operators didn't resist the technology, they asked for more of it.

Douglas T. Dietrich

Chairman & CEO, MTI (Customer)

We operate some of the largest phosphate mines in the world. When we piloted AIM, we weren't looking for incremental improvement, we needed to know if autonomous dozers could handle the complexity of our geology and our operating conditions. They did. We expanded the scope because the results justified it.

Abhiram Kannan

Principal at Bidra / OCP Group (Customer)

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 of Wayne Brothers (Customer)

Most autonomy companies can demonstrate the technology but few are live in the field doing real work. Very few can make the economics work. AIM made it work. We are bullish because we see the commercial scale.

Vinod Khosla

Founder of Khosla Ventures

In modern combat, some of the most dangerous moments are those that entail clearing or maneuvering through obstacles, logistical supply across gray zones, and repairing critical infrastructure... Autonomous earthmovers that can accomplish vital missions without putting people in harm's way is not just a convenience. It is a moral responsibility and a key to winning.

Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster (Ret.)

U.S. Army

AIM solves the two problems every military engineer faces: a shortage of skilled operators and too many of them in harm's way. The technology is TRL9, it's in the field, and it works.

Brigadier General Duke DeLuca (Ret.)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Beyond technology, AIM has demonstrated to our unique network of heavy equipment operators located around the world that autonomous operations provide tangible productivity gains with unparalleled safety...

Ty Findley

Co-Founder & General Partner of Ironspring Ventures

AIM's autonomous technology boosts equipment efficiency and maximizes utilization by operating continuously, increasing production rates and eliminating variability caused by manual operations...

Pat Pohlman

Former Director of Continuous Improvement at Peabody Energy

AIM has crossed the line most autonomy companies never do: from lab demo to commercial reality. Their deployment data shows this is not experimental technology. It is a working product with real business value.

Sven Strohband

Partner at Khosla Ventures

AIM in the News

Mining Magazine · June 18, 2026

Ouster and AIM Intelligent Machines team up

International Mining · June 18, 2026

AIM to integrate new Ouster Rev8 LiDAR into its earthmoving autonomy kits

· March 31, 2026

Autonomy Advantage: The Real Impact of Autonomy in Mining and Large-Scale Earthworks

Fast Company · March 24, 2026

The most innovative robotics and engineering companies of 2026

BuildWitt · March 21, 2026

Inside AI Earthmoving Machines!

Silicon Valley Bank · March 02, 2026

Autonomous in the field: Industrial AI’s tipping point

· February 17, 2026

AIM Names The Herga Group as Exclusive Dealer for Australia and New Zealand

· January 23, 2026

AIM Dealer Announcement - SITECH South

· January 23, 2026

AIM Dealer Announcement - Intermountain Technologies

Axios · January 21, 2026

Exclusive: Air Force taps AIM for autonomous air base construction

· January 21, 2026

U.S. Air Force Awards AIM $4.9M for Fully Autonomous Base Construction and Rapid Airfield Damage Recovery (RADR)

Forbes · January 19, 2026

Construction Autonomy Powers Ahead at CES 2026

Dirt Talk by BuildWitt · December 11, 2025

Dirt Talk by BuildWitt: Adam Sadilek w/ AIM Intelligent Machines

· December 01, 2025

AIM Automates Construction and Mining with World's First AI Platform for Heavy Machinery, Announces $50 Million in Funding

· October 31, 2025

Adam Sadilek. Founder and CEO of AIM – Interview Series

Semafor · June 10, 2025

Construction tech startup AIM raises $50M to fuel expansion

· October 22, 2024

Minerals Technologies Announces Deployment of Artificial Intelligence Technology for Mining