Travis Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7 Billion for Robotics

Travis Kalanick, the former CEO of Uber, has raised $1.7 billion for his robotics startup, Atoms, in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Kalanick intends to use the capital to digitize the physical world, focusing on the development of robots for the food, mining, and transportation industries.

As part of its expansion, Atoms has integrated Kalanick's CloudKitchens as a subsidiary and acquired Pronto, a company specializing in autonomous mining. The startup is also building a leadership team of former Uber executives, including Chief Financial Officer Gautam Gupta.

Atoms recently appointed Vikas Chandra as vice president of AI. A former Meta AI executive who led development for smart glasses, Chandra is tasked with building foundation models that allow machines to understand and operate within physical environments.