Research at USC
Kabir earned a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Southern California in 2019. In 2020 he co-founded GrayMatter with SK Gupta and Brual Shah, and the team won the $50,000 grand prize at USC Viterbi's Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition.1,2
Leading GrayMatter
Under Kabir, GrayMatter raised a $45 million Series B in June 2024, bringing its total to $70.4 million.2
In August 2026 HII signed agreements under which it intends to award up to $900 million in shipbuilding work to GrayMatter and Path Robotics over seven years. Kabir told Seapower the deal grew out of a meeting with HII at the Re-Industrialize conference in Detroit, Michigan.3,4
What we do is what we call bringing AI across different layers of the factory to basically solve the human bottleneck problem.Seapower, September 10, 2026
Links
Sources
- USC Viterbi School of Engineering, GrayMatter Robotics wins the Maseeh Entrepreneurship Prize Competition, May 7, 2020, accessed November 3, 2026
- PR Newswire, GrayMatter raises $45M Series B, June 20, 2024, accessed November 3, 2026
- HII, HII signs performance-based production agreements with Path Robotics and GrayMatter Robotics, August 6, 2026, accessed November 3, 2026
- Seapower, GrayMatter develops advanced robotics for future-proof shipbuilding, September 10, 2026, accessed November 3, 2026
