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Travis Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7 Billion to Build 'Gainfully Employed' Robots for Heavy Industry
Ep. 130 03:35

Travis Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7 Billion to Build 'Gainfully Employed' Robots for Heavy Industry

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About This Episode

Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick's robotics holding company Atoms raised $1.7 billion led by a16z, with Uber itself joining the round. Rebranded from CloudKitchens and built on the acquired industrial-automation firm Pronto, Atoms aims to bring 'physical AI' to manufacturing and mining, pledging robots that bring 'abundance to their owners and society at large.'

Our Take

The founder who built Uber by insisting drivers weren't employees is now spending $1.7B on robots he calls 'gainfully employed' — a slogan promising 'abundance to their owners' first, which forces the question of who actually captures the wealth when physical labor gets automated.