Physical Intelligence in talks to raise $1B at $20B valuation - Bloomberg
Physical Intelligence in talks to raise $1B at $20B valuation - Bloomberg
Physical Intelligence is in early discussions to raise at least $1 billion in fresh capital, a financing that would nearly double the robotics software startup's valuation to roughly $20 billion, Bloomberg reported. Existing backers Lux Capital and Avenir are in talks to lead the round, according to people familiar with the matter, signaling continued venture appetite for foundational artificial intelligence models tailored to the physical world.
The proposed transaction would mark a rapid step-up in valuation for the company, which secured an $11.5 billion valuation earlier this year. Despite having no current revenue, the pre-revenue venture has drawn substantial backing from high-profile investors including Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG, Thrive Capital, and Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos.
Founded in 2024 by former Google DeepMind researchers alongside academics from Stanford University and UC Berkeley, the company is building a hardware-agnostic AI platform designed to control diverse robotic systems. Recent job listings indicate the firm is training models on routine physical tasks, spanning item bagging and dish sorting to installing light bulbs.
The fundraising momentum follows the startup's decision earlier this month to release beta access of its latest robotics models to outside developers for fine-tuning, which helped catalyze investor interest. That rollout highlights the startup's push to establish a pervasive operating layer for robotics before rivals entrench their own proprietary ecosystems.
Venture capital has increasingly migrated toward embodied AI as advancements in multimodal systems create viable paths for automation across complex real-world environments. Physical Intelligence faces intensifying competition from deep-pocketed incumbents like OpenAI and Tesla Inc., as well as specialized peers such as Skild AI, which garnered a $14 billion valuation in January and recently crossed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.