Travis Kalanick's Atoms Raises $1.7B to Bring AI Robotics to Factories, Mines and Kitchens

Travis Kalanick is back with a bet on physical AI, and the market just backed him with $1.7 billion. Atoms, the company he built by rebranding his ghost-kitchen venture Cloud Kitchens, closed the round with Andreessen Horowitz leading the check. Ben Horowitz will now sit on the company's board, a signal that a16z sees this as more than a passive investment.

The round drew a wide mix of capital. Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and Uber, the company Kalanick co-founded and was famously ousted from in 2017, all participated. Equity partners also included Chemistry, A*, K5 Global, Abstract, SV Angel and Alpha Square Group. On the debt side, Atoms lined up commitments from Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan and Barclays, a roster more typical of infrastructure finance than early-stage venture, and a hint at how capital-intensive the company's ambitions are.

Atoms describes its mission as building industrial AI for the food, mining and transportation sectors. The pitch centers on combining software, sensors, robotics and machine learning to automate the physical labor of manufacturing, moving and storing materials, work that has largely resisted automation compared to digital-first industries.

From Ghost Kitchens to Heavy Industry

The company's current form took shape gradually. Kalanick renamed the business Atoms in March 2026, folding in Cloud Kitchens, the delivery-only restaurant infrastructure company he founded after leaving Uber. As part of building out Atoms, he acquired Pronto, a heavy industry automation company run by Anthony Levandowski, another figure from Kalanick's Uber years who previously led the ride-hailing giant's self-driving efforts. The new funding round coincided with a broader restructuring that merged Atoms' various business lines into a single equity structure, consolidating what had been a patchwork of ventures into one entity investors could back directly.

Why the Backing Matters

The scale of the raise, and the identity of the backers, puts Atoms in rarefied company among robotics and industrial AI startups. Getting five major banks to commit debt financing alongside a16z-led equity suggests investors view the company's automation targets, warehouses, mines, kitchens, transport networks, as capital-heavy but bankable infrastructure plays rather than speculative robotics research.

It also marks a notable rehabilitation moment for Kalanick, who left Uber in 2017 amid allegations of a toxic workplace culture, discrimination and sexual harassment complaints during his tenure. Uber's own participation in this funding round, alongside a16z's Horowitz taking a board seat, shows Silicon Valley's biggest names are willing to bet heavily on his next act, this time aimed not at software-only markets but at the physical world of factories, supply chains and heavy industry.