Physical Intelligence, the San Francisco-based robotics startup founded by former Google DeepMind researchers, is in discussions to raise approximately $1 billion in new funding at a valuation exceeding $11 billion, Bloomberg reported Friday. The round would nearly double the company’s $5.6 billion valuation from just four months ago.
Founders Fund is set to participate, with Lightspeed Venture Partners also in discussions, according to TechCrunch. Returning backers Thrive Capital and Lux Capital are expected to invest again. Bloomberg noted that negotiations are still at an early stage and details could change.
The Funding Velocity
Physical Intelligence raised $600 million in November 2025 at a $5.6 billion valuation, in a round led by CapitalG with participation from Lux Capital, Thrive Capital, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, according to Bloomberg’s earlier reporting. That brought total funding to just over $1 billion at the time. If the current round closes, the company will have raised more than $2 billion in total, with its valuation roughly doubling between its last two rounds.
The pace is unusual even by AI funding standards. The company was founded in 2024 and employs roughly 80 people, per TechCrunch’s January visit to the company’s headquarters.
What Physical Intelligence Builds
The company is developing general-purpose AI models that can power robots to perform a wide range of physical tasks, from folding laundry to peeling vegetables. Co-founder Sergey Levine described the approach to TechCrunch in January: “Think of it like ChatGPT, but for robots.”
Co-founder Lachy Groom told TechCrunch the company has no timeline for commercialization. “There’s no limit to how much money we can really put to work,” Groom said. “There’s always more compute you can throw at the problem.”
Physical AI Funding Surge
Physical Intelligence’s raise fits a broader pattern. More than $6 billion flowed into physical AI startups in Q1 2026 alone, spanning humanoid robots, AI chips, autonomous vehicles, and industrial automation, according to a FoundEvo analysis of 27 companies. Robotics companies absorbed roughly $4 billion of that total.
Figure AI, another humanoid robotics startup, reached a $39 billion post-money valuation after its Series C round in September, per CNBC. Its third-generation robot appeared alongside first lady Melania Trump at a White House summit this week.
The funding concentration reflects a conviction among investors that the next phase of AI moves beyond software. Physical Intelligence is betting that the same foundation-model approach that powered ChatGPT can work for robotics: train large general-purpose models that transfer across hardware platforms, rather than building task-specific systems for individual robots. Whether that thesis justifies a $11 billion valuation for an 80-person company with no commercial product remains the open question.