Robotics Firm Physical Intelligence in Talks for at Least $1 Billion at About a $20 Billion Valuation, Reports Say

What happened

The lead investors and the state of the talks are the core of this report: existing investors Avenir and Lux Capital are in talks to lead the round, at least $1 billion at a valuation of about $20 billion, according to reports; the company and both firms did not respond to requests for comment, the talks are still under way, terms are not settled, and the reporting rests on people familiar with the matter.

The company background and product form appear in the same reports: Physical Intelligence was founded in 2024 by a team from Google DeepMind's robotics research groups and academics at Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, building general-purpose robotics AI software that runs on third-party hardware, taking in vision and language and outputting robot actions; earlier this month, the company opened its latest robot model to outside developers in beta, available to access and fine-tune, while still in testing.

The valuation path and peer comparison form the backdrop: the company was valued at $11.5 billion in a round earlier this year, and at $2.4 billion in a November 2024 round; existing investors include Alphabet's CapitalG, Jeff Bezos and Thrive Capital. Among peers, Skild AI was valued at $14 billion in January and passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in September, while Bedrock Robotics raised $600 million at a valuation of about $4.1 billion.

Key facts

1. Source: Bloomberg reported on Oct 27, citing people familiar with the matter, with PANews, Quartz and others relaying it the same day; the round has not been announced and terms are not settled.
2. Size: the round under discussion is at least $1 billion at a valuation of about $20 billion, nearly double the $11.5 billion valuation from earlier this year.
3. Leads: existing investors Avenir and Lux Capital are in talks to lead the round.
4. Revenue status: people familiar with the matter said the company currently has no revenue.
5. Founding and team: the company was founded in 2024 by a team from Google DeepMind's robotics research groups and academics at Stanford and UC Berkeley.
6. Product form: general-purpose robotics AI software that runs on third-party hardware, taking in vision and language and outputting robot actions; the latest model opened to outside developers in beta earlier this month.
7. Valuation path: $2.4 billion in November 2024, $11.5 billion earlier this year, and about $20 billion under discussion now.