🧠 Travis Kalanick's $1.7B computer for the physical world

Summary

Good morning, robotics enthusiasts. A few months back, Travis Kalanick announced his stealthy robotics venture.

The play is “computers for the physical world” — specialized machines for running the industries that make and move everything. No humanoids.

The Rundown: Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick just shared more about his new robotics venture, Atoms, announcing the company has raised $1.7B in equity and debt to build “atoms-based computers for all the major industrial sectors.”.

Kalanick described Atoms as the final piece of his 16-year "bits to atoms" arc after Uber digitized transportation and CloudKitchens built a "food computer.”.

The company builds atop Kalanick’s CloudKitchens and the March acquisition of Pronto, with all entities now coming under Atoms.

a16z led the round, with Ben Horowitz calling industrial AI inevitable, predicting robots will handle making, moving, and storing everything physical.