- Atoms consolidates Kalanick’s CloudKitchens into a robotics company building specialized industrial robots for food, mining and transport.
- Kalanick says he is the “largest investor” in Pronto, the autonomous vehicle startup founded by Anthony Levandowski, and is close to acquiring it.
- The Uber co-founder relocated to Austin, Texas on December 18, 2025, amid California’s proposed Billionaire Tax Act.
- Atoms focuses on task-specific “gainfully employed robots” rather than general-purpose humanoid machines.
- Kalanick told TBPN he wants to move faster in self-driving technology than competitors like Waymo.
From CloudKitchens to Industrial Robots
Travis Kalanick is back. The Uber co-founder who was pushed out in 2017 after a cascade of scandals has rebranded his ghost kitchen venture CloudKitchens into Atoms, an industrial robotics company targeting food service, mining and transportation. The pivot signals a much larger ambition than meal prep logistics.
Atoms will operate through three divisions: Atoms Food for kitchen and food industry automation, Atoms Mining for productivity-boosting robotics in extraction operations, and Atoms Transport for a foundational “wheelbase” platform powering robotic mobility across environments. Kalanick is betting that specialized machines built for specific tasks will outperform humanoid robots, which still struggle with unpredictable real-world environments.
I bled, but I did not perish. I got back up and fought my way back into the arena, back to my calling. Back to building.
— Travis Kalanick (@travisk) March 15, 2026
“Humanoids have their place, but there’s a lot of room for specialised robots that do things in an efficient, industrial-scale way,” Kalanick said in a live interview with TBPN. He described the company’s machines as “gainfully employed robots” — purpose-built systems designed for productive, repeatable work.
The Pronto Deal Revives an Old Playbook
The most provocative move is Kalanick’s near-acquisition of Pronto, the autonomous vehicle startup founded by Anthony Levandowski. Levandowski was the engineer at the center of the explosive Uber-Waymo trade secrets lawsuit in 2017 — a case that cost Uber $245 million in equity and became one of Silicon Valley’s most notorious IP battles. Bringing him back into the fold is a deliberate signal.
Kalanick confirmed he is already Pronto’s largest investor. According to The Information, he has told associates he intends to push autonomous deployment faster than Waymo and other incumbents. Pronto specializes in driverless systems for industrial sites and mining operations — a natural fit for Atoms’ broader automation stack.
The timing is loaded. Kalanick recently moved to Austin, Texas, on December 18, 2025, joining a growing exodus of billionaires from California ahead of the proposed 2026 Billionaire Tax Act — a one-time 5% levy on fortunes exceeding $1 billion. “Why so much Florida action? Come on, homies,” he joked on air, noting he chose Austin over Miami.
“I had been torn away from an idea and a movement that I had poured my life into,” Kalanick wrote on the Atoms website. “I got back up and fought my way back into the arena, back to my calling. Back to building.”
