Robot AI startup Physical Intelligence raises $400 mln from Bezos, OpenAI

Physical Intelligence, a startup that is developing foundational software for robots, has announced that it has raised $400 million in early-stage funding from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI, venture capital firms Thrive Capital and Lux Capital.

The new funds were raised at a $2 billion valuation, PitchBook data showed.

Physical Intelligence is seeking to make a software that would work on any robot, eliminating the need to develop a software for each specific task.

The largest tech companies — Microsoft, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Nvidia — are investing billions in adopting AI. Funding of AI and cloud companies in the US, Europe, and Israel is estimated to hit $79.2 billion by the end of 2024, according to venture capital firm Accel.

Multiple startups are foraying into the robotic AI space, including Vicarious, which was acquired by Alphabet-owned Intrinsic in 2022, Universal Robots, Seegrid, and Covariant.

Elon Musk earlier said that there will be at least 10 billion humanoid robots priced between $20,000 and $25,000 by 2040. Tesla also showed the latest version of its Optimus humanoid robot at the Robotaxi unveiling event.

Last week, Physical Intelligence published a paper which showed how its software, called π0, or pi-zero, enabled robots to fold laundry, bagging groceries, and taking toasts out of a toaster.