Travis Kalanick has secured $1.7 billion for his robotics and industrial automation startup Atoms, marking one of the largest funding rounds for an AI-driven robotics company this year.
The move also signals renewed confidence in the former Uber chief executive’s ambitions to reshape the physical economy through software, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines.
The funding round was led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and several other investors. As part of the investment, Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz will join Atoms’ board of directors.
Perhaps the most striking aspect of the financing was the participation of Uber, reconnecting Kalanick with the ride-hailing company he co-founded and led until his resignation in 2017 following shareholder pressure amid allegations of sexual harassment, workplace discrimination and a toxic corporate culture.
The investment represents a notable thaw in relations between Kalanick and Uber nearly a decade after one of Silicon Valley’s most public leadership battles. While the companies have not disclosed the size of Uber’s investment, its participation suggests the transportation giant sees strategic value in maintaining ties with one of its founders as robotics and AI begin transforming logistics, industrial automation and mobility.
The capital injection positions Atoms among the best-funded startups pursuing what many investors believe will be the next major phase of artificial intelligence: applying AI beyond digital applications into factories, warehouses, construction sites, mines and other industrial environments where autonomous machines can perform physical work.
Atoms is effectively a rebranded holding company built around CloudKitchens, the ghost kitchen business Kalanick established after leaving Uber. The company adopted the Atoms name in March as part of a broader strategic shift beyond food infrastructure into robotics and industrial technology.
Acquisition of Pronto
At the same time, Kalanick announced the acquisition of Pronto, an autonomous vehicle software company founded by former Uber executive Anthony Levandowski. Pronto specializes in self-driving systems for heavy industrial vehicles operating in sectors such as mining, where automation can improve safety, productivity, and operating efficiency.
The acquisition expanded Atoms’ technological capabilities beyond logistics, providing autonomous driving software for off-road industrial equipment, an area viewed as commercially attractive because vehicles operate in controlled environments rather than on public roads.
Kalanick has made clear that his ambitions extend well beyond autonomous trucks. He has said Atoms intends to develop technologies for mining and other industrial sectors, building on Pronto’s autonomous vehicle expertise to create broader robotic systems capable of transforming heavy industry.
His long-term vision appears to center on developing a common robotics platform that can serve multiple industries.
Kalanick has previously described the goal as creating a “wheelbase for robots,” suggesting Atoms aims to build foundational hardware and software that can be adapted for a wide range of autonomous industrial machines rather than focusing on a single application.
The strategy aligns with growing investor interest in what many call “physical AI,” where advances in foundation models are combined with robotics, computer vision and autonomous systems to automate tasks in manufacturing, transportation, construction, mining and logistics.
In a post on X following the fundraising announcement, Kalanick characterized the investment as the continuation of a mission he began at Uber more than a decade ago.
“On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business. Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms,” he wrote.
“Sixteen years ago, I started a journey to digitize the physical world. Understand, predict and control the physical world with software. Building ‘atoms-based’ computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation.”
The comments suggest Kalanick views robotics as the natural extension of software’s transformation of digital services. Instead of optimizing information flows, he envisions AI coordinating physical assets including factories, buildings, transportation networks and industrial equipment.
Andreessen Horowitz’s support highlights the venture firm’s conviction that robotics will become one of artificial intelligence’s largest commercial opportunities. Investors believe AI’s next wave of value creation will come not only from chatbots and software assistants but from intelligent machines capable of performing physical labor.
“Travis is Back,” Horowitz wrote in a separate post announcing the investment.
“It takes a rare kind of entrepreneur to change these old-school, heavy parts of our economy. They need a gritty work ethic, drive, and range that spans across domains, from software architecture to mechanical engineering. Travis is that guy.”
Horowitz said Atoms’ mission is to improve productivity across the physical economy by combining AI with robotics.
“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,” he wrote.
This supports a growing investment thesis across Silicon Valley that productivity gains from AI will increasingly depend on integrating software intelligence with physical machines. While generative AI has transformed knowledge work, robotics promises similar efficiency gains in industries facing labor shortages, rising operating costs and increasing demand for automation.
Kalanick provided few details about how Atoms plans to deploy the new capital, though his comments suggested hiring will be a major priority as the company expands engineering and product development.
“Changemakers, the builders of tomorrow’s progress machines, will inevitably go up against the final boss, Nature and its fierce resistance to change,” he wrote.
“Nature is going to throw everything it has at the builders in this new industrial age and it’s going to take humanity’s strongest to stay the course and get these complex systems and industries over the finish line.”
The financing comes as investment in AI-powered robotics accelerates globally. Advances in large language models, computer vision and autonomous navigation have renewed investor optimism that robots are approaching commercial viability across sectors including manufacturing, warehousing, healthcare, agriculture and mining.
The fundraising marks Kalanick’s most significant return to the technology industry’s center stage since leaving Uber and provides the financial resources to pursue a vision that extends beyond software platforms into the automation of the physical economy. If successful, Atoms could place Kalanick once again at the forefront of a technological shift, this time focused on bringing AI-driven robotics into industries that have historically been among the hardest to digitize.
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