# Ashish Kapoor

> Ashish Kapoor is the co-founder and CEO of General Robotics (formerly Scaled Foundations), a Redmond, Washington startup building a unified intelligence layer for robots of every shape. After 17 years at Microsoft, where he led the Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research group, created the open-source AirSim simulator, and co-authored the widely read 'ChatGPT for Robotics' paper, Kapoor set out in 2023 to make robot intelligence portable across hardware. His thesis: general intelligence emerges from the rich composition of many robot skills, not from a single ever-larger model. He holds a PhD from the MIT Media Lab, flies and has built his own airplane, and treats simulation as the laboratory where machines learn to be safe before they touch the real world.

- **Role:** Co-Founder and CEO at General Robotics
- **Organizations:** General Robotics (formerly Scaled Foundations), Microsoft Research (former), MIT Media Lab (alumnus)
- **Nationality:** American (of Indian origin)
- **Education:** PhD (discriminative models for pattern recognition with incomplete information), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Media Lab
- **Known for:** Created AirSim, one of the most widely used open-source robotics simulators, built as a plug-in for Unreal Engine, Co-authored the influential 'ChatGPT for Robotics' paper applying large language models to robot task generation, Led the Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research group at Microsoft over a ~17-year career

## Career timeline

- **2006** — Earned PhD from the MIT Media Lab
- **2006-2023** — Spent ~17 years at Microsoft Research, rising to General Manager of the Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research group
- **2017** — Released AirSim, an open-source simulator for drones and autonomous vehicles built on Unreal Engine
- **2019** — Organized Game of Drones, a simulation-based drone-racing competition at NeurIPS
- **2023** — Co-authored 'ChatGPT for Robotics' and founded Scaled Foundations with former Microsoft colleagues
- **2025** — Rebranded Scaled Foundations as General Robotics; launched the GRID intelligence platform
- **2025** — Selected for the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program (November)
- **2026** — Accenture invested in General Robotics to advance physical AI in manufacturing and logistics (April)

## Achievements

- Created AirSim, one of the most widely used open-source robotics simulators, built as a plug-in for Unreal Engine
- Co-authored the influential 'ChatGPT for Robotics' paper applying large language models to robot task generation
- Led the Autonomous Systems and Robotics Research group at Microsoft over a ~17-year career
- Built the GRID (General Robot Intelligence Development) platform supporting 40+ robot types and 40+ pre-trained AI skills
- Raised seed funding from investors including Khosla Ventures and E14
- Holds FAA Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor certificates and built his own RV-8 aircraft

## Latest updates

- **2026-04** — Accenture invested in General Robotics to advance physical AI-powered robotics in manufacturing and logistics.
- **2025-12** — General Robotics supported calls for a national robotics strategy at a Congressional Robotics Caucus meeting.
- **2025-11** — Selected for the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Program.
- **2025-08** — Co-founders Ashish Kapoor and Dinesh Narayanan met Singapore's Minister for Law at Dimension X Demo Day.

## Links

- Website: https://generalrobotics.company
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashish-kapoor-a2971b6
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/akapoor_av8r

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/ashish-kapoor
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-25