Physical Intelligence Seeks $1 Billion as Robotics Interest Grows

Robotics startup Physical Intelligence is reportedly in talks on a $1 billion funding round.

That round would raise the company’s valuation to north of $11 billion, Bloomberg News reported Friday (March 27), citing sources familiar with the matter.

This deal would double the valuation of the startup, which is developing artificial intelligence models that perform a range of tasks.

To date, the company has raised more than $1 billion in capital from investors including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, the report added.

Bloomberg noted that investors have been showing increased interest in companies working on AI models for the physical world, with humanoid robotics startup Skild AI recently reaching a valuation of more than $14 billion.

Another company, Mind Robotics, was recently valued at around $2 billion after a $500 million funding round aimed at developing autonomous robotics systems.

The startup, a spinout of electric vehicle maker Rivian, focused on developing advanced robotics technologies for deployment in manufacturing and logistics, where companies are looking for new forms of automation to deal with labor shortages and operational complexity.

Big Tech companies are also entering the robotics space, including Apple, Meta and Google DeepMind, where some of Physical Intelligence’s founders got their start.

Physical Intelligence is creating AI software to help robots learn a wide range of movements, and has used its software on robotic arms in testing environments to engage tasks like folding clothes, preparing coffee and assembling boxes, the report added.

The company has said its goal is to develop models that let robots perform any function a user requests via “vision-language models,” much like large language models carry out on command in a digital space.

As PYMNTS wrote earlier this month, the new focus on physical AI “reflects a shift in the AI startup landscape away from general-purpose tools toward systems that can perform defined tasks in sectors such as robotics, healthcare, logistics and enterprise software.”

Interest in physical AI has increased amid a larger debate about the role robotics might play in advancing AI.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently contended that humanoid robots could point the way toward artificial general intelligence (AGI), suggesting that machines that can interact with the physical world may speed progress in autonomy and reasoning.

“While the claim remains speculative, funding patterns suggest investors are betting that AI systems connected to real-world environments could become a major frontier of innovation,” that report added.

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