Caterpillar and FieldAI Advance AI-Powered Industrial Innovation

Leveraging robotics, digital twins and NVIDIA technologies, the collaboration helps create safer, smarter and more productive operations

IRVING, Texas, Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- As industries face growing labor shortages and increasing productivity demands, Caterpillar Inc. (NYSE: CAT) is collaborating with FieldAI to advance physical AI, autonomy and robotics that help jobsites and factories operate safer and more efficiently. By turning real-time observations into actionable insights, physical AI helps improve decision-making, enhance safety and maximize the effectiveness of every worker and machine.

"The future of our industries will be shaped by how effectively we combine human expertise with AI-powered machines," said Jaime Mineart, Caterpillar chief technology officer. "Collaborations like this help accelerate the journey. We're focused on applying AI where it matters most, helping customers improve safety, increase productivity and get more value from every operation."

Earlier this year at CES, Caterpillar shared its vision for the jobsite of the future: a safer, more productive and easier-to-run operation powered by intelligent machines, connected workflows and digital insights.

This collaboration combines Caterpillar's deep industry expertise, engineering capabilities and operational data with FieldAI's AI-enabled robot foundation models to autonomously operate across complex jobsites and manufacturing environments, accelerating practical solutions that improve safety, productivity and operational efficiency.

Early applications include:

• Autonomous inspections to improve safety and operational visibility.
• Jobsite and facility digital twins that provide real-time insights into equipment, infrastructure and operations.
• Enhanced situational awareness to help identify potential risks sooner and support faster, more informed decision-making.
• Operational optimization that improves efficiency through simulation, automation and AI-driven insights.

"Modern manufacturing at Caterpillar is transforming how we work, from design to delivery, through advanced technology, digital innovation and a culture of continuous improvement," said John Tuntland, Caterpillar senior vice president of Integrated Components Division. "These technologies give our teams greater visibility into how our facilities operate and help us identify opportunities to improve safety, optimize flow and make more informed decisions. As our people embrace new ways of working, we are building manufacturing operations that respond faster to change and perform at their best."

Caterpillar selected FieldAI for its proven ability to deploy in complex, dynamic industrial environments where traditional automation often falls short. FieldAI's robot-agnostic autonomy and foundation models can turn large volumes of operational and jobsite data into actionable insights—complementing Caterpillar's manufacturing modernization and jobsite of the future initiatives.

"Caterpillar has shaped operations on jobsites and manufacturing facilities for over a century, and these are exactly the environments FieldAI excels in, with deployments spanning hundreds of sites worldwide," said Ali Agha, founder and CEO of FieldAI. "This collaboration brings leading physical AI capabilities to a leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment. Together, we are shaping the next century of AI-enabled heavy industry."

Caterpillar and FieldAI are advancing AI-powered autonomy to help customers build, move and power progress more safely, productively and efficiently. Leveraging NVIDIA accelerated computing, NVIDIA Omniverse technologies and high-fidelity digital twins built from operational data, the collaboration improves site visibility, accelerates decision-making and supports the next generation of industrial operations.

About Caterpillar
For more than a century, Caterpillar has built a better, more sustainable world. With 2025 sales and revenues of $67.6 billion, Caterpillar Inc. is shaping the future as the world's leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, off-highway diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and diesel-electric locomotives. Backed by one of the largest independent global dealer networks and financing services through Cat Financial, the company's primary business segments: Power & Energy, Construction Industries and Resource Industries are solving customers' toughest challenges through commercial excellence and advanced technology, driven by a highly skilled, dedicated global team. Learn more at www.caterpillar.com. 

About FieldAI
FieldAI is the leader in deploying general-purpose robots in unstructured environments, providing frontier autonomy software as a universal "brain" that works across many robots and many tasks. The company's Field Foundation Models™ uniquely combine data-driven AI with physics-based reasoning and uncertainty awareness, enabling safe and reliable operations in environments previously considered too unpredictable for robots. FieldAI's leadership team brings together world-class expertise in AI foundation models and real-world robotics, with roots in Google DeepMind, NASA JPL's Mars exploration program, and DARPA's Subterranean Challenge and RACER programs. The company has raised over $400 million from investors including Bezos Expeditions, Emerson Collective, Khosla Ventures, Canaan Partners, NVentures (NVIDIA's venture capital arm), Prysm Capital, Temasek, and others. For more information, visit www.fieldai.com or contact [email protected]. 

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SOURCE Caterpillar Inc.