Eric Wu's latest venture, NavigateAI, has been quietly building out since May. The company is using artificial intelligence to create AI-powered guidance systems for construction workers, who are facing a severe labor shortage due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and growing demand for new buildings.
Wu, who previously founded and ran online real estate platform Opendoor, built NavigateAI with a team of experts from Meta and venture capital firms Khosla Ventures and Lennar. The company is backed by $25 million in funding, which it plans to use to expand its AI-powered guidance systems for construction workers.
The labor shortage has made data center projects particularly challenging, as companies need large teams of workers to manage the increased demand for infrastructure development. According to estimates, these projects alone require 4,000 to 5,000 workers each, many of whom are struggling to find employment due to the pandemic and shifting industry trends. NavigateAI's AI-powered guidance systems aim to address this shortage by providing construction workers with real-time, hands-free assistance through smartphones and Meta's AI glasses.