Physical Intelligence, a robotics artificial intelligence startup, announced it has raised $400 million in a funding round led by Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos.
This investment, which also included Thrive Capital, Lux Capital, OpenAI, Redpoint Ventures and Bond, values the company at approximately $2 billion.
Founded this year, Physical Intelligence’s mission is to bring general-purpose AI into the physical world. The company has developed a general-purpose robot foundation model, π0 (pi-zero), as a first step toward its long-term goal of developing artificial physical intelligence.
The company is led by co-founder and CEO Karol Hausman, a former Google robotics scientist. Other co-founders include Sergey Levine, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and Lachy Groom, an investor and ex-executive at Stripe.
The company sees a future where users can easily direct robots to perform various tasks, similar to the way humans currently interact with large language models and chatbot assistants.
“Like LLMs, our model is trained on broad and diverse data and can follow a variety of text instructions. Unlike LLMs, it includes images, text and actions and acquires physical intelligence by training in embodied experiences of robots, learning to execute low-level motor commands directly through a novel architecture,” the company said in its blog post .
Recent research has demonstrated the software’s capabilities, with robots performing various tasks such as folding laundry, clearing tables and flattening boxes. According to company executives, the software’s versatility positions it as a “true generalist,” setting it apart from more task-specific robotics AI software.
As competition increases in the robotics industry, other companies are also pursuing ambitious goals. Skild and Figure AI are developing multifunctional robotic intelligence systems, while Sanctuary AI focuses on creating humanoids with human-like intelligence.
Tesla recently joined the fray, with CEO Elon Musk demonstrating Optimus, a humanoid robot that can perform everyday tasks like dog walking, mowing the lawn and household chores, and even communicate in Gen Z lingo with expressive hand gestures.
Amazon, meanwhile, sees robotics as a way to streamline operations and shorten delivery times, reflecting growing interest in applying robotics across industries.
