Physical AI company Atoms, founded by Travis Kalanick, has secured a $1.7 billion equity investment, marking one of the largest funding rounds in the industrial AI sector this year. The investment was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with General Partner Ben Horowitz joining the company’s board as part of the transaction.
The funding round attracted participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, Chemistry, A, K5 Global, Abstract, SV Angel, Alpha Square Group, and Uber, the ride-hailing company Kalanick co-founded before exiting in 2017.
In addition to the equity investors, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan, and Barclays have been named as debt partners. However, the company has not disclosed the size of any associated debt financing facility.
The latest investment comes as industrial AI and robotics continue to attract significant investor interest. Publicly traded companies supporting the robotics ecosystem have also benefited from growing optimism around the sector.
Atoms serves as the holding company built on CloudKitchens, Kalanick’s ghost kitchen business, and Pronto, the heavy-industry automation company previously led by Anthony Levandowski, which Kalanick acquired in March 2026.
Following the integration, the company now operates through three divisions—Atoms Food, Atoms Mining, and Atoms Transport.
In a post on X, Kalanick described Atoms as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) building “atoms-based computers” for industrial sectors. He compared the company’s vision with how Uber digitized transportation and CloudKitchens transformed food production, writing, “Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms.”
Ben Horowitz outlined the firm’s investment thesis in a post published on a16z.com, arguing that industry-specific robots offer greater practical value than humanoid robots.
“The specialised ones are far better suited to most of those jobs.”
He further added, “I think the most valuable thing someone could do with AI and robotics is to repeat the same thing Uber did for transportation, or that computers did for the digital world: to make everything and everyone more productive.”
Horowitz said the company’s three operating divisions are focused on what he described as “all trillion-dollar industries”—mining, heavy transport and food production.
The latest investment also carries personal significance for Kalanick. In his X post, he revealed that a partnership with Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz nearly materialised during Uber’s early years in 2011.
Reflecting on that missed opportunity, Kalanick wrote, “In 2017 Uber suffered the consequences of not having Marc on the board.”
Uber’s participation in the latest funding round adds another layer to the renewed relationship between the former CEO and the company he co-founded.
Atoms’ fundraising comes during a period of record investment in robotics and physical AI. According to Dealroom data cited by multiple outlets, global robotics funding reached $55.8 billion through early June 2026, nearly doubling the previous annual record.
Kalanick’s vision letter references Tesla’s “Amazing Abundance” thesis while positioning Atoms’ “Age of Atoms” as the industrial counterpart. Tesla reported negative free cash flow for Q2 2026 after AI and robotics investments exceeded $25 billion for the year, highlighting the significant capital requirements associated with large-scale AI and robotics development.
The $1.7 billion investment provides Atoms with substantial financial backing as it scales its industrial AI platform across food production, mining and transport. With support from Andreessen Horowitz, Uber and several leading investors, the company is positioning itself to capitalise on growing demand for specialised robotics and automation technologies in some of the world’s largest industrial sectors.
