Travis Kalanick's new venture Atoms is all about robotics
Travis Kalanick, best known for starting Uber, is back with a new company called Atoms.
After several years under wraps, Atoms was announced on March 13, 2026.
It's a fresh spin on City Storage Systems and brings together CloudKitchens's ghost-kitchen tech with robotics for food service, mining, and transport.
Atoms has 3 main divisions
Atoms runs three main divisions: Food automates kitchens and restaurants; Mining uses robots to boost industrial productivity (and is close to acquiring Pronto, an autonomous vehicle startup founded by Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber colleague); Transport builds robotic platforms for logistics.
Thousands already work across these teams.
Kalanick's vision for robots
Instead of building human-like robots, Kalanick wants machines that handle specific jobs in industries where automation is needed most.
As he puts it: "Gainfully employed robots are the machines best suited for the job at hand, that can make a living doing it."
After leaving Uber years ago under pressure, he's now all-in on "atoms-based computers" powered by physical AI: robots made to get real work done.