Travis Kalanick's Robotics Company Atoms Raises $1.7B Led by a16z

Travis Kalanick's robotics company, Atoms, has raised $1.7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch. Ben Horowitz will join the company's board following the investment, and Bain Capital, Fifth Wall, and other investors also participated in the round.

What Happened

TechCrunch reported on July 22, 2026 that Atoms closed the $1.7 billion round with a16z in the lead position. Notably, Uber itself joined the funding round — reconnecting Kalanick with the company he co-founded and which pushed him out as CEO in 2017 following complaints of sexual harassment, discrimination, and a toxic workplace.

Atoms is essentially a rebranded holding company built atop the project Kalanick has worked on since resigning from Uber: CloudKitchens, a ghost-kitchen venture. When he revealed the new name in March, Kalanick announced he had acquired Pronto, a heavy-industry automation company run by his former Uber colleague Anthony Levandowski. Kalanick has also said he wants to move into mining with Atoms, extending beyond what Pronto already does for vehicles in that industry. Last year, it was reported that Kalanick was interested in buying the U.S. arm of Chinese self-driving company Pony AI with backing from Uber, though The Information reported in March that those talks had ended.

In a post on X about the fundraise, Kalanick did not detail specifics of what he plans to build with Atoms, writing: "On many levels, this round is a bit of unfinished business. Fuel to complete the bits-to-atoms story arc we started at Uber, continued at CloudKitchens and will now finish at Atoms. 16 years ago, I started a journey to digitize the physical world. Understand, predict and control the physical world with software. Building 'atoms-based' computers where CPU is manufacturing, storage is real estate, and network is transportation." Kalanick has said he wants to build a "wheelbase for robots" with Atoms.

Ben Horowitz posted simultaneously, declaring "Travis Is Back." Horowitz wrote: "It takes a rare kind of entrepreneur to change these old-school, heavy parts of our economy. They need a gritty work ethic, drive, and range that spans across domains, from software architecture to mechanical engineering. Travis is that guy." Horowitz added that Atoms will be focused on making people more productive in the physical world, writing: "I think the most valuable thing someone could do with AI and robotics is to repeat the same thing Uber did for transportation, or that computers did for the digital world: to make everything and everyone more productive."

TechCrunch did not report a specific breakdown of how the capital will be deployed, though Kalanick's commentary suggests a significant portion is likely to go toward hiring.

Background

Kalanick's background at Uber is relevant context: Uber demonstrated that a single platform company could rapidly restructure an entire labour market — professional driving — through networked technology deployment. Atoms now brings together several threads of Kalanick's post-Uber career, including CloudKitchens and the Pronto acquisition, under a single entity focused on physical-world automation.

What to Watch

Kalanick has not disclosed a post-money valuation for Atoms, nor specific deployment sectors beyond his stated interest in mining and his description of building a "wheelbase for robots." TechCrunch's reporting indicates Atoms spans heavy industry, transportation, and manufacturing ambitions rather than a single narrow vertical. Readers should watch for further disclosure of how the $1.7 billion will be deployed and which sectors Atoms targets first.