Uber’s co-founder Travis Kalanick may be returning to the ride-hailing business he built. According to a September 6, 2026 Financial Times report surfaced by TechCrunch, his industrial AI company Atoms is preparing an aggressive hiring and acquisitions push aimed at the autonomous-vehicle market, with a $100 million cheque already on the books from Uber.
What the FT revealed
Atoms is reportedly in talks with Uber about deploying its Pronto autonomy stack across the ride-hailing network as a third-party robotaxi option. Sources cautioned that robotaxis are only part of Atoms’ agenda, but the direction lines up with Kalanick’s framing of his return as “unfinished business”. Uber’s $100 million investment - part of the $1.7 billion Andreessen Horowitz-led mega-round the company disclosed in July - was previously confirmed by TechCrunch.
Pronto and the Levandowski connection
Atoms’ robotaxi credibility rests on Pronto, the autonomous-mining startup led by Uber’s former self-driving chief Anthony Levandowski, which Atoms acquired earlier this year. Pronto’s cross-OEM autonomy stack now becomes the software layer for Atoms’ on-road ambitions. Levandowski, previously convicted of stealing trade secrets and sentenced to 18 months in prison, was pardoned by President Trump earlier in 2025.
Uber's growing AV bet
Uber has already stitched together a long list of autonomous-vehicle partners including Waymo, Motional and Zoox, and the Atoms stake gives it a captive alternative that a founder-friendly Kalanick can steer. It follows Uber’s expanding equity playbook across mobility-AI vendors - see the recent Waymo expansion into 14 cities and Tesla’s Cybercab probe that are reshaping the U.S. robotaxi map.
What we still don't know
Atoms officially describes itself as an “industrial software company” with “no plans to enter the saturated robotaxi market”. That formal denial and the FT reporting can both be true: mining and industrial deployment is Atoms’ near-term wedge, but on-road robotaxis look increasingly like the long-term destination.
Reporting based on coverage from Financial Times, TechCrunch and PYMNTS.