Travis Kalanick’s Robotics Venture Atoms Secures $1.7 Billion in Funding

The investment marks a significant return for Kalanick to the venture capital spotlight. The $1.7 billion round included participation from Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and others. Notably, Uber also joined the funding effort, re-establishing a formal connection with the executive who led the ride-hailing company until his 2017 resignation following complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.

Atoms and the Vision for Physical AI

Kalanick has described the new company as the culmination of a long-term project to modernize the industrial economy. Atoms functions as a rebranded holding company for initiatives that began during his time at CloudKitchens. Central to the company’s mission is the concept of a wheelbase for robots—a platform designed to automate heavy industrial tasks. When he revealed the new name in March, Kalanick announced he had acquired Pronto, the heavy industry automation company run by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick has also stated he wants to get into mining with Atoms, going beyond what Pronto already does for vehicles in that industry. While it was reported last year that Kalanick was interested in buying the U.S. arm of Chinese self-driving vehicle company Pony AI with backing from Uber, The Information reported in March that those talks had ended.

Ben Horowitz, who will join the Atoms board, expressed support for the company’s focus on physical productivity. 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 stated in a post on Wednesday. Horowitz added, “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.”

Market Movement and Kalanick’s Uber Stock Sales

While Kalanick secures capital for his new venture, his financial footprint at his former company has been the subject of SEC filings. Following the expiration of Uber’s post-IPO stock lockup, the company’s trading volume jumped to 10 times the average daily volume. By the end of that week, an SEC filing revealed that Kalanick had offloaded 20 million shares worth $540 million, reducing his stake in the company to 4.5%.

The selling continued in a subsequent week, where Kalanick jettisoned 3.5 million shares. These included shares owned through a five-year charitable remainder unitrust (CRUT) that lists Kalanick as its sole owner. On Monday of that week, he sold the remaining 2,365,455 shares held in that trust at an aggregate price of $26.89 per share for a total value of $63 million. He subsequently sold 251,713 shares at $27.15 on Monday, followed by 2,057,299 shares at $27.23 on Tuesday and 1,412,310 shares at $26.57 on Wednesday. These transactions netted a total of $163 million for that week, bringing his combined earnings from the two-week period to $703 million.

Industry Challenges and Unfinished Business

In a post on X, Kalanick addressed the purpose behind the fundraise: 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 further explained his ambition: “16 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.”

Kalanick acknowledged the inherent difficulties of his chosen sector, noting that the company will face resistance from the physical world. 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.