Physical Intelligence, Stripe veteran Lachy Groom's latest bet, is building Silicon Valley's buzziest robot brains

The company has raised over $1 billion to develop general-purpose robotic intelligence, taking a different approach than rivals like Skild AI.

Jan. 30, 2026 at 6:47pm

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Physical Intelligence, a two-year-old startup co-founded by Stripe veteran Lachy Groom, is working on developing general-purpose robotic intelligence. The company operates test kitchens and collects data to train its models, which can then be applied to various robotic platforms and tasks. While rivals like Skild AI are focused on commercial deployment, Physical Intelligence is betting that resisting near-term commercialization will enable it to produce superior general intelligence.

Why it matters

The race to build general-purpose robotic intelligence is heating up, with companies taking different approaches. Physical Intelligence's focus on pure research and avoiding near-term commercialization pressures sets it apart from rivals like Skild AI, which has already deployed its 'omni-bodied' Skild Brain commercially. The outcome of this philosophical divide could have significant implications for the future of robotics and automation.

The details

Physical Intelligence operates test kitchens where it collects data on robots performing various tasks, from folding pants to peeling zucchini. The company is using this data to train general-purpose robotic foundation models that can then be applied to different hardware platforms and tasks. The hardware itself is deliberately unglamorous, with the company aiming to compensate for lower-cost components with advanced intelligence. Physical Intelligence has raised over $1 billion and is not focused on a timeline for commercialization, instead prioritizing long-term decisions without compromise.

  • Physical Intelligence was founded in 2024.

The players

Lachy Groom

A 31-year-old co-founder of Physical Intelligence and an early employee at Stripe. Groom previously sold his first company at the age of 13 in his native Australia.

Sergey Levine

An associate professor at UC Berkeley and one of Physical Intelligence's co-founders.

Chelsea Finn

A former Berkeley PhD student of Levine's who now runs her own lab at Stanford focused on robotic learning.

Karol Hausman

A Google DeepMind researcher who also taught at Stanford and was involved in the founding of Physical Intelligence.

Quan Vuong

Another co-founder of Physical Intelligence who came from Google DeepMind.

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What they’re saying

“Think of it like ChatGPT, but for robots.”

— Sergey Levine, Associate Professor, UC Berkeley

“Good ideas at a good time with a good team – [that's] extremely rare. It's all execution, but you can execute like hell on a bad idea, and it's still a bad idea.”

— Lachy Groom

“The marginal cost of onboarding autonomy to a new robot platform, whatever that platform might be, it's just a lot lower.”

— Quan Vuong, Co-founder, Physical Intelligence

What’s next

Physical Intelligence plans to continue growing its team, with a focus on expanding its hardware capabilities, which the company sees as a key challenge. The company will also continue testing its robotic systems with a small number of partners across different industries to assess their real-world readiness.

The takeaway

Physical Intelligence's approach to building general-purpose robotic intelligence, which prioritizes long-term research over near-term commercialization, represents a philosophical divide in the robotics industry. The outcome of this race could have significant implications for the future of automation and the role of robots in our daily lives.