San Francisco-based Physical Intelligence has closed roughly $1 billion in new financing at a valuation north of $11 billion, the two-year-old robotics foundation model startup said this week. The round effectively doubles the company's $5.6 billion valuation set just four months ago and lands it among the most valuable physical AI startups in the world.
Who's In
The financing is led by Founders Fund, with Lightspeed Venture Partners joining as a new investor. Existing backers Thrive Capital and Lux Capital followed on. The last round, a $600 million Series A close in late 2025, valued the company at $5.6 billion.
What the Money Buys
Co-founded by ex-Google DeepMind researcher Karol Hausman with UC Berkeley and Stanford professors Sergey Levine and Chelsea Finn, Physical Intelligence is building general-purpose AI models that can drive a wide range of robot bodies. The team has demonstrated its pi-zero and pi-zero-plus models laundering clothes, clearing tables, and operating household appliances from a single network. Fresh capital is expected to fund larger training runs and accelerate commercial pilots with industrial partners.
Why The Valuation Jumped
The round arrives amid a wave of mega-checks for robot brains. Skild AI closed $1.4 billion in January, and Jeff Bezos' stealth Project Prometheus reportedly hit a $38 billion valuation. Investors are betting that foundation models, not bespoke firmware, will determine which humanoids actually ship at scale.
Market Context
Humanoid and physical AI startups have raised more than $2.3 billion in 2026 through May, according to industry trackers, with concentration at the top: the largest three rounds account for more than 60% of disclosed capital. The pattern mirrors the early years of large language model funding, when capital crowded around a handful of frontier labs. Physical Intelligence has now raised more than $1.6 billion since inception.
What To Watch
The next test is commercial traction. Founders Fund's involvement signals confidence in eventual platform economics, but the company has yet to disclose paying customers. Watch for licensing deals with hardware OEMs and an updated model release later this year.
For more on the funding climate, see our coverage of Saronic's $1.75 billion Series D, the EdgeCore Digital $1.5 billion data center financing, and how Genesis AI is pushing robot foundation models forward.
Reporting based on coverage from Bloomberg, TechCrunch, PYMNTS, and TechFundingNews.