Analysis
Physical Intelligence is in talks to raise at least $1 billion in new funding at a valuation that would nearly double to about $20 billion, according to a Bloomberg report relayed by PANews.
The robotics-AI startup raised funds earlier this year at an $11.5 billion valuation, and existing investors Avenir and Lux Capital are now in talks to lead the new round.
## What changed since Pulse last covered Physical Intelligence Pulse previously covered a rumor that Anthropic was circling Physical Intelligence for an acquisition. A fresh $1 billion round at roughly $20 billion makes that outcome look far less likely: raising independently at a near-doubled mark is the opposite signal of a company positioning for a sale, and it would make any acquirer's price tag dramatically higher than it was when the rumor first surfaced.
“Whether that holds will depend on whether π0's new commercial fine-tuning access converts into paying deployments before the next funding conversation starts.”
## What Physical Intelligence does Physical Intelligence was founded in 2024 by CEO Karol Hausman, who left Google DeepMind along with five colleagues from Stanford and UC Berkeley, including co-founders Sergey Levine and Lachy Groom. The San Francisco startup builds AI software that runs on third-party robot hardware across a range of physical tasks; its π0 model, released in October 2024, serves as a base layer for robot control, and the company opened external fine-tuning access to its latest model earlier this month, still in testing. Recent job postings indicate the company is training robots for everyday household tasks, a signal its roadmap is moving from lab settings toward consumer environments.
- ## Physical Intelligence's funding history
- The company's valuation has compounded rapidly:
- 2025 round -- $600 million raised at a $5.6 billion valuation
- March 2026 (reported talks) -- roughly $1 billion discussed at just over $11 billion
- 2026 round (closed) -- landed near $11.5 billion, per the current Bloomberg report
- Now (in talks) -- at least $1 billion more, at a valuation nearing $20 billion
Each step has come without the company generating meaningful revenue, according to people familiar with the matter cited by PANews -- barely seven months separate the $11.5 billion mark from talks of nearly double that.
## Who's backing the new round Avenir and Lux Capital, both existing investors, are in talks to lead. Alphabet's CapitalG and Jeff Bezos have backed earlier rounds, and Thrive Capital and Lux Capital were previously reported in talks to return for the $1 billion round discussed in March.
## Robotics funding context Physical Intelligence's climb mirrors a broader robotics-AI funding wave. Crunchbase News reported that global venture funding to robotics startups hit $9.9 billion in the third quarter of 2026 alone, more than double the $4.3 billion invested a year earlier.
Skild AI illustrates how fast rivals are scaling too: a $14 billion valuation followed a $1.4 billion SoftBank-led round in January, per Bloomberg Government. The risk for any investor writing a check at these levels is the same one dogging the whole category: a research company with no near-term product revenue is being priced like one that already has customers.
## The revenue question Bloomberg's report describes talks, not a signed term sheet, and PANews notes the company's revenue status has not changed since March. If the round closes near $20 billion, Physical Intelligence would sit just behind Skild AI's roughly $14 billion mark and ahead of most other humanoid and robot-foundation-model startups, making it one of the most richly valued pre-revenue AI companies outside the large language model labs. Whether that holds will depend on whether π0's new commercial fine-tuning access converts into paying deployments before the next funding conversation starts.