Where VC dollars (and jobs) are headed in sensing tech

Venture capital investment in sensing technology is clearly on an upward path for 2026, according to industry insiders, and is boosted largely by a heavy push for Physical AI.  That’s the area where robotics, self-driving vehicles and industrial automation need sensors of many types that act as the eyes and ears of a machine, robot or vehicle (or even its feet or wheels).

Consider the humanoid robot, now heavy on the minds of Nvidia’s Jensen Huang and hundreds of medium companies and small startups: To move or sense the presence of humans, motion sensors and location sensors (GPS) are needed. Radar and lidar and a range of optical sensors will be needed to find obstacles, even humans walking and working alongside humanoids in warehouses or manufacturing facilities. 

It won’t only be the MEMS or IMU hardware or a multiplicity of other sensors, but also the software used to direct where sensing data is moved to and analyzed.

“Physical AI is the new sexy thing to invest in that needs sensors,” a strategy consultant now involved in health VC funding told Fierce. 

Most VC funds don’t specifically invest in sensors alone, but will go after an industry like healthcare where sensors abound or a general investment strategy around Physical AI. VCs and angels don’t necessarily want to invest in hardware alone, one industry official told Fierce, partly because there will be dollars left in hardware inventory if the company receiving an investment doesn’t make it.

Even with that admonition, there are indeed VC dollars wrapped into broader categories beyond sensors, like AI Hardware or Deep Tech.   The investment opportunities also signal job opportunities for engineers, many with annual salaries topping $100,000, as noted below. 

What analysts say

CES 2026 “was all about Physical AI,” noted Tess Skyrme in a note from IDTechEx. “This only serves as good news for the sensors market. Sensors are key in unlocking new data streams and AI applications beyond the chatbot.” 

IDTechEx has forecast the global sensor market will top $250 billion by 2036, a number far more conservative some other forecasts topping $280 billion in 2026 alone, up 8% from 2025. 

That IDTechEx forecast includes a group of sensors for mobility including lidar, radar and camera, along with thermal image sensors. It also includes emerging sensors such as quantum sensors, silicon photonic sensors, printed sensors and emerging image sensors like hyperspectral. Also, the forecast counts MEMS and CMOS, biosensors, other sensors for automotive outside of ADAS, gas sensors and sensors for aerospace.

Recent activity in Physical AI in March indicates part of what is happening.  Amazon just acquired Swiss startup Rivr to test robots for doorstop delivery. And Elroy Air, developer of autonomous aerial systems for logistics, has been selected for the US Department of Transportation’s electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) pilot. To take advantage of such activity,  Arrive AI is building an infrastructure layer with Arrive Points smart hubs now operating inside hospitals to move medications with AI orchestration with robots, drones and couriers.

IDTechEx said the sensor market stands at an inflection point “where traditional MEMS, pressure and image sensor technologies converge with revolutionary innovations including quantum sensors, silicon phototonics, printed electronics and AI-enabled edge sensing.” Edge AI is also the subject of a Fierce Sensors survey, asking developers and engineers about their experiences taking pilots to production. 

“Edge computer integration represents a crucial architectural trend, with sensors increasingly incorporating on-device processing capabilitys to reduce latency, enhance privacy and minimize bandwidth requirements,” IDTechEx said in its forecast.

The company has studied more than 280 companies in the sensors field, including large players like Analog Devices, Omron and ST Microelectronics.

Where the VCs are investing 

A cursory review of where big VC firms are investing in the sensors space includes NVentures, the VC arm of Nvidia, which co-invested in Series D for Oxa, which integrates diverse sensor suites for commercial fleets.  Also, Nvidia is a strategic leader in Figure AI’s $1 billion Series C and Skild AI’s recent round. Both are focused on end-to-end sensor-to-action loops in humanoids. 

Lux Capital raised $1.5 billion in January to  boost AI and defense tech investments. They include:  Physical Intelligence, building universal foundation models for robotics; Aeva’s 4D lidar for autonomous systems; Anduril Industries for its Lattice AI platform that fuses computer vision, autonomous drone sensors and edge computing for defense; and Osmo, a company focused on digitalizing scent using AI to create new aroma molecules.

Khosla Ventures raised $3 billion for its AI Utopia, with a focus on sensors to replace manual labor and improve health. These include Kholsa, an AI-first autonomous trucking company; Skild AI, which is building a robotics foundation model working across hardware with many sensors; and Mesa Quantum, using quantum sensing for high-precision positioning and time that doesn’t require GPS. 

B Capital and Google co-led a $520 million round for Apptronik in February to scale up humanoid robots that can sense and react to industrial settings. 

Early 2026 investments have gone to various companies: Wayve in autonomous driving, AI, $1.2 B from SoftBank, Nvidia, Uber; Waabi in  AI-first trucking, $70M from Khosla Ventures, G2; Apptronik in humanoid robotics, $520M from B Capital, Google, QIA; Axelera AI in edge AI inference, $250M from Innovation Industries, BlackRock; Xsensio in clinical bio-sensors, $7M from WI Harper.

And where the jobs are

Out of these and other  VC investments, many job roles are being advertised, often by the VC firm itself. (Note: Some specific job roles may no longer be accepting applications, but these examples are meant to provide an insight into possible job roles. )

Skild AI is hiring to build general purpose robotic intelligence that allows robots to adapt to new sensors without retraining.  Job roles include engineers skilled in 3D scene segmentation and object tracking, and many recent offerings are for hybrid or onsite work in Bengaluru, India Other roles include using sensors to guide robotic arms and data collection in the US and India to supply their models.

Physical Intelligence is hiring to digitize the physical world so AI can interact with objects easily, including a recent focus on Technical Program Manager for AI/ML, which may have recently been filled

Figure AI in San Jose, CA, was recently hiring Reliability Engineers for PCBA and Harnesses to ensure sensors survive in industrial settings and in AI training seeking Helix AI engineers to process real-time sensor feedback and Humanoid Robot Pilots for data creator work 

 Anduril was recently hiring Robotics Software Engineers to fuse lidar, IR and acoustic sensors tactical awareness and Robotic Autonomy Systems Engineers to integrate sensors across land, air and sea platforms. 

The following chart, from various sources, indicates estimated salaries for engineers in Physical AI fields related to sensors and associated tech: 

Editor’s Note: Edge AI and IoT are big focus areas with Physical AI and will be on display at Sensors Converge 2026, May 5-7, in Santa Clara, CA.  Register online.