Atoms Puts Kalanick’s $1.7 Billion Round Behind Robotaxi Push
Atoms is preparing hiring and acquisition moves around robotaxi technology after raising $1.7 billion, with Uber investing $100 million and discussing use of the startup’s system.
Travis Kalanick is using Atoms’ $1.7 billion funding round to push back into autonomous ride-hailing, with the industrial automation and robotics startup preparing hiring and acquisition moves around robotaxi technology.
SiliconANGLE, citing Financial Times reporting, placed the effort inside Atoms’ unusually large early financing and Kalanick’s unfinished ambitions from Uber.
Atoms was founded in March, raised the $1.7 billion round in June, and has disclosed little publicly about how that capital will be deployed.
The clearest direction now is autonomous driving.
The startup is preparing to add staff and pursue acquisitions as it tries to become a major player in robotaxis, a market where software, vehicle operations and regulatory readiness all have to line up before a service can scale.
Uber’s presence in the financing gives the plan a sharper commercial path.
The ride-hailing company invested $100 million in the round and has already held talks with Atoms about using its robotaxi technology with Uber’s network.
Any partnership would reconnect Kalanick with the company he built after years outside its leadership.
That would be a notable reversal in corporate terms.
Kalanick resigned from Uber’s board in 2019 after earlier being forced out as chief executive.
A robotaxi agreement would not put him back inside Uber, but it could make his new company a supplier to the platform that originally gave him a route into urban mobility.
The company is not being built only around ride-hailing, yet robotaxis appear to be a large part of the company’s focus.
Kalanick told an Andreessen Horowitz event in San Francisco this month that “a lot of things that would have happened at Uber over time are things we’re doing now.” The comment tied the new startup’s operating plan to ideas that were left unresolved during his Uber tenure.
The acquisition trail points in the same direction.
After closing the June funding, Atoms acquired Pronto, an autonomous mining startup led by Anthony Levandowski, a Waymo co-founder and former Uber self-driving car engineer.
Pronto brings autonomous-vehicle experience from industrial settings rather than consumer ride-hailing alone.
The financing also gives the company room to buy capability instead of building every part of the stack internally.
Hiring can expand engineering capacity, while acquisitions can add autonomy talent, vehicle software and operational know-how.
That approach fits a market in which robotaxi entrants need large capital reserves before revenue becomes predictable.
The next material test is whether the company can turn funding, acquisitions and Uber talks into a deployed service path.
Until a partnership or operating launch is confirmed, the company’s robotaxi strategy remains a well-financed return to a market Kalanick once tried to shape from inside Uber.
