Kalanick’s Atoms Builds Autonomous Driving Team, Reconnects With Uber
Travis Kalanick unveiled Atoms in March 2026 after recasting City Storage Systems, the parent of ghost-kitchen operator CloudKitchens, as an industrial AI and robotics company spanning food, mining and transportation. The move returns the former Uber chief executive to autonomous driving, a field he championed before his 2017 ouster. Atoms also acquired Pronto, the autonomous mining-vehicle company founded by former Uber and Google self-driving engineer Anthony Levandowski.
Atoms is developing autonomous-vehicle technology and has hired several dozen former Uber employees while recruiting from Zoox, Tesla and Waymo, the Financial Times reported on Sept. 6. The company has more than 2,000 employees across its businesses. It raised $1.7 billion in July in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz, including a reported $100 million investment from Uber. Atoms said it has no plans to enter the “saturated robotaxi market,” but added that Uber could use its technology if it proves useful for ride-hailing.
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The history behind this eventKalanick’s Atoms Raises $1.7 Billion for Physical AI Push
Travis Kalanick’s Atoms emerged from the entrepreneur’s post-Uber effort to digitize physical industries, combining CloudKitchens and related food-infrastructure operations with robotics and heavy-industry automation. Unveiled on March 13, 2026, the company is organized around food, mining and transport, and describes its approach as “Physical AI”: software, sensors, machines and artificial intelligence working together to automate real-world production. The strategy matters because it takes generative-AI-era investment beyond data centers into capital-intensive industrial systems.
On July 22, 2026, Atoms announced a $1.7 billion equity investment led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with co-founder Ben Horowitz joining the board. Uber, which Kalanick co-founded, also participated, alongside Bain Capital and Fifth Wall. The financing brings Kalanick’s businesses under a single Atoms equity structure and will support expansion in autonomous transport, food-production robotics and mining automation. Atoms’ mining arm is anchored by Pronto, the autonomous-haulage specialist it acquired in March 2026, broadening the company’s push into industrial AI.
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