Travis Kalanick raises $1.7 billion for Atoms as a16z bets on specialized industrial robots over humanoids
Travis Kalanick’s industrial AI company Atoms raised $1.7 billion in an a16z-led round announced July 22, with Uber itself joining as an investor and Ben Horowitz taking a board seat. The deal merges Kalanick’s CloudKitchens, Pronto mining automation, and transport businesses into a single equity structure, built around a contrarian thesis that specialized robots beat humanoids.